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FREEMATST'S 

Historical Course. 

l6mo, Cloth. 
The object of this series is to put forth clear 
and correct views of history, embodying the 
latest researches in simple language and com- 
pact form. All the volumes are prepared under 
the supervision of Prof. Edward A. Freeman. 

I. -GENERAL SKETCH OF HISTORY. 
By Edward A. Freeman. With an Index 
and i6 Historical Maps. 

II.— HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 

By Edith Thompson. New edition with 6 maps. 

HI HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 

By Margaret Macarthur. 

IV.— HISTORY OF ITALY. 
By the Rev. W. Hunt. . 

v.— HISTORY OF GERMANY. 
By James Sime. 

VI.— HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 
By J. A. Doyle. With Maps and Revisions, 
by Francis A. Walker. 

VII.— HISTORY OF FRANCE. 
By C. M. Yonge. 



HENRY HOLT &. CO., Publishers, 

29 West 2Sd Street, New Vork. 



i 



FKEEMAX'S HISTORICAI. COi'RSK FOR SCIIOO/ S 



HISTORY 



OF 



ENGLAND 



EDITH THOMPSON 

EDITF.n BY 

Edward A. Freeman, D.CL. 

Edition adajtted for American Students 




» > *» > »- 



NEW YORK 
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 

1887 



fi^\yv^\' \ 



O; '' . ^ 



y.^' 



^x,' 



P. 
W,D, Johns tofl 



LIST OF MAPS. 

THE BRITISH DOMINIONS, 1 878 . . . Front. 

BRITAIN IN 597 To face page 10 

THE ENGLISH EMPIRE IN THE lOTH AND IITH 

CENTURIES ,, 33 

DOMINIONS OF THE HOUSE OF ANJOU . . ,,69 

FRANCE AFTER THE TREATY OF BRETIGNY . ,, IO9 

ENGLAND ,, 337 



PREFACE. 



The appearance of the first of the series of small 
histories to be published under my editorship seems 
to call for a few words from me. The present History 
of England takes for granted the views and divisions 
laid down in my General Sketch of History so far 
as they concern the particular history of England. 
The points in English history which were there touched 
on as parts of general history, with special regard to 
their bearings on the history of other countries, are here 
dealt with more fully, as a consecutive narrative of the 
history of the particular nation and country of England. 
It will perhaps be found to be more compressed than 
some other volumes of the series, as the history of our 
country naturally appealed to a wider circle than any 
other, and it was thought right to keep the book within 
as small a compass as might be. 

The book is strictly the work of its author. I have 
throughout given it such a degree of supervision as to 
secure its general accuracy ; but with regard to the 
details of the narrative, both as to their choice and their 
treatment, they are the author's own; on these points I 
have not thought it right to go beyond suggestion. It 



mi PREFACE. 

may perhaps be hard for me to speak impartially of a 
book to whose general merit I am pledged by its mere 
appearance ; but I can honestly say that it is the result 
of genuine work among the last and best lights on the 
subject. I believe it to be thoroughly trustworthy, and 
that it will give clearer and truer views on most of the 
pomts on which clear and true views are specially 
needed than can be found in any other book on the 
same small scale. 

EDWARD A. FREEMAN. 

SOMERLEAZE, WeLLS, 

Marc/t 8M, 1873. 



NOTE. 

It having been suggested to me by persons engaged 
in education that the addition of some maps and the 
expansion of certain parts of the narrative would make 
this book more useful in schools, I have accordingly, 
and with Mr. Freeman's sanction, prepared this edition 
v^^hich I trust will be found an improvement. 

E. T. 

/ufy, 1878. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAP. 9Mm 

I. — BRITAIN BEFORE THE ENGLISH CONQUEST . I 
II. — THE ENGLISH IN BRITAIN .... 6 
III.— CONVERSION OF THE ENGLISH TO CHRIS- 
TIANITY 14 

IV. — THE RISE OF WESSEX . , . . . 18 

V. — FROM iETHELSTAN TO THE DANISH KINGS . 25 

VI. — THE DANISH KINGS 3^ 

VII. — FROM EDWARD TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST , 35 
VIII. — THE OLD ENGLISH AND NORMANS . . 40 

IX.— WILLIAM 1 52 

X.— WILLIAM II 57 

XI. — HENRY 1 61 

XII.— STEPHEN • . 65 

XIII. — HENRY II. * 69 

XIV. — RICHARD 1 75 

XV.- JOHN 79 

XVI.— HENRY III 84 

XVII.— EDWARD 1 92 

XVIII. — EDWARD II 99 

XIX.— EDWARD III 104 

XX.— RICHARD II • . .113 

XXI. — HENRY IV 121 

XXII. — HENRY V 126 

XXIII.— HENRY VI 131 



V 



X CONTENTS. 

CHAP. PAGB 

XXIV.— EDWARD IV I38 

XXV.— EDWARD V I43 

XXVI. — RICHARD III. . . . , . . I45 

XXVII.— HENRY VII. I $2 

XXVIII. — HENRY VIII 1 57 

XXIX.— EDWARD VI 1 68 

XXX.— MARY 175 

XXXI. — ELIZABETH 180 

XXXII. — JAMES 1 193 

XXXIII. — CHARLES I. 205 

XXXIV. — THE COMMONWEALTH . . . . 219 

XXXV. — CHARLES II 230 

XXXVI.— JAMES II 240 

XXXVII. — WILLIAM AND MARY: WILLIAM III. . 255 

XXYVIII. — ANNE ■ . 264 

XXXIX. — GEORGE 1 272 

XL. — GEORGE II 277 

XLI.— GEORGE III 292 

XLII. — GEORGE IV 325 

XLIII.— WILLIAM IV 330 

XLIV. — VICTORIA 337 

INDEX 349 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 

B.C 

Caesar lands in Britain 55, 54 

A.D 

Claudius in Britain 43 

Caradoc subdued 50 

Revolt of Boadicea . 61 

Agricola governs Britain 78 — 84 

Hadrian in Britain 120 

Severus dies at York 211 

Martyrdom of St. Alban about 304 

The Koman legions leave Britain . ... . about 410 

The English Conquest: — Landing of Hengest and 

Horsa in Thanet 449 

Hei>gest founds the Kingdom of Kent .... 455 
Landing of .^lle and Cissa — settlement of South-Saxons . 477 
Landing of Cerdic and Cynric — settlement of West-Saxons 495 
Cerdic and Cynric found the Kingdom of Wessex . .519 
Arthur defeats the West-Saxons at Badbury . . . 520 

Ida founds the Kingdom of Bemicia .... 547 

iEthelbert of Kent converted by Augustine . . . 597 

Edwin converted by Paulinus 627 

Oswald King of the Northumbrians ; Aidan Bishop of 

Lindisfam 635 

Ine King of the Wett-Saxons 688—726 

Ofifa King of the Mercians 767—796 

First landing of the Danes in England . 789 



x!v CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 

A.D. 

Egbert King of the West-Saxons 802 

Egbert becomes Lord over all the English Kingdoms . . 829 

iEthelwulf 837 

iEtbelbald ... .... 858 

^thelbert 860 

^thelred 1 866 

The Danes land in East-Anglia 866 

Alfred 87] 

Battle of Ethandun ; Peace of Wedmore .... 878 

Edward the Elder 901 

Edward becomes Lord of all Britain 924 

/Ethelstan 925 

Battle of Brunanbnrh 937 

Edmund the Magnificent 940 

Edred 946 

Final submission of the Northumbrians . . . about 954 

Edwy 955 

Edgar 959 

Edgar erovmed at Bath 973 

Edward the Martyr 975 

iEthelred II 979 

The Danish invasions begin j^ain 980 

Battle of Maldon ; Danegeld first paid .... 991 
The Danish Conquest : — Swegen acknowledged King 1013 
Death of S-wegen ; restoration of ^thelred . . 1014 

Edmund Ironside 1016 

War between Edmund and Cnut ; the Kingdom divided 1016 
The Danish Kings: — Cnut chosen King of all England 1017 
Harold and Harthacnut ; the Kingdom again divided . 1035 

Harold King of all England 1037 

Harthacnut 1040 

House of Cerdic restored : — Edward the Confessor. . 1042 
Struggle against the foreigners .... 1051 — 1052 
Revolt of the Northumbrians ; consecration of Westminister 1065 
House of Godwin : — Harold II. .... 1066 

Battle of Stamford Bridge, Sept. 25 ... 1066 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. xv 

A.D. 

The Norman Conquest :— Battle of Hastings, Oct. 14 1066 
The Norman Kings :— William I. crowned, Dec. 25 . 1060 

Harrying of Northumberland 1069 

Defence of the Isle of Ely 1071 

Domesday drawn up 1085^ -1086 

Meeting at Salisbury — all freemen to swear allegiance . 1086 

WiUiarr. II 1087 

Malcolm III. of Scotland slain at Alnwick . . 1093 

Henry I. : — Charter of Liberties granted, Aug. 5 . 1100 

Battle of Tinchebrai, Sept. 28; Normandy won .1106 

Stephen 1135 

Battle of the Standard, Aug. 22 1138 

War of Stephen and Matilda . . . 1139-1153 

House of Anjou :— Henry II. ... . 1154 

Constitutions of Clarendon 1164 

Conquest of Ireland 1169—1171 

Murder of Archbishop Thomas, Dec. 29 . 1170 

Richard 1 1189 

Richard seized by Leopold, Duke of Austria 1192 

John 1199 

Normandy lost 1204 

John becomes a vassal of Rome, May 15 . 1213 

The Great Charter granted, June 15 . 1215 

Henry III . 1216 

Charter of the Forest granted, Nov. 6 .... 1217 
The Barons' War ; battle of Lewes, May 14 . . . 1264 
Earl Simon's Parliament meets, Jan. 20 ; battle of Evesham, 

Aug. 4 1265 

Edward 1 1272 

Conquest of Wales 1283 

The Jews expelled from England ..... 1290 
Final organization of Parliament . . . . .1295 

Conquest of Scotland 1296 

The Confirmation of the Charters, Nov. 5 , 1297 

Edward II 1307 

Battle of Bannockbum, June 24 ... .1314 



xvi CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 

AD 

Battle of Athenree, Aug. lo 1316 

Edward IL deposed; Edward IIL becomes King . . 1327 

The late King Edward II. murdered, Sept. 21 . . . 1327 

Independence of Scotland acknowledged .... 1328 

The Hundred Years' War begins 1338 

Battle of Crecy, Aug. 26 ; battle of Neville's Cross, Oct. 12 1346 

Surrender of Calais, Aug. 3 1347 

Battle of Poitiers, Sept. 19 1358 

Peace of Bretigny, May 8 1360 

The Good Parliament meets, April 28 ; the Black Prince 

dies, June 8 1376 

Richard II 1377 

The Peasant Insurrection , 1381 

John Wycliffe dies, Dec. 31 1384 

Richard II. deposed ; House of Lancaster:— Henry IV. 

becomes King ...*.... 1399 

Statute against Heretics passed ; William Sautree burned . 1401 

Battle of Shrewsbury, July 21 1403 

Henry V 1413 

The Hundred Years' War renewed : Battle of Azincourt, 

Oct. 25 1415 

Surrender of Rouen, Jan. 19 1419 

Treaty of Troyes, May 21 1420 

Henry VI. 1422 

Jack Cade's insurrection ..*.... 1450 

End of the Hundred Years' War 1453 

Wars of York and Lancaster ; first battle of St. Albans, 

May 22 . 1455 

Battle of Wakefield, Dec. 30 1460 

House of York : — Edward IV 1461 

Battle of Bamet, April 14 ; battle of Tewkesbury, May 4 . 1471 

Edward V. ; Richard III 1483 

Battle of Bos worth, Aug. 22 1485 

The Tudors :— Henry VII. . . . . . 1485 

Perkin Warbeck hanged 1499 

Marriage of Margaret Tudor to James IV. of Scotland 1503 

Henry VIII. . 1509 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. %vi\ 

A.O. 

Battle of Flodden, Sept. 9 1513 

Marriage of Henry with Katharine of Aragon declared 

null and void ........ 1533 

The Papal power in England set aside .... 1534 

Wales incorporated with England ; dissolution of the lesser 

monasteries ; Anne Boleyn beheaded . . 1536 

The greater monasteries dissolved ; Act of the Six Articles. 1539 

Ireland raised to the rank of a Kingdom .... 1542 

Edward VI .... 1547 

Battle of Pinkie, Sept. 10 1547 

Mary 1653 

Wyatt's insurrection, Jan. — Feb. ; Jane Grey beheaded, 

Feb. 12 ; reconciliation with Rome, Nov. 30 . . 1554 

Ridley and Latimer burned at Oxford, Oct. 16 . . . 1555 

Calais taken by the French 1558 

Elizabeth 1558 

Act of Supremacy ; Act of Uniformity . . . . 1559 

Mary of Scotland beheaded, Feb. 8 . . . . . 1587 

The Spanish Armada defeated, July 21-30. . . . 1588 

Charter granted to the East India Company, Dec. 31 . 1600 

House of Stuart : — James I 1603 

The Gunpowder Plot discovered, Nov. 5 . . . . 1605 

Translation of the Bible finished 1611 

Charles 1 1625 

The Petition of Right, June 7 1628 

Hampden refuses to pay ship-money . . . , 1636 

The Long Parliament meets, Nov. 3 . . . 1640 

Strafford beheaded, May 12 ; the Irish Rebellion . . 1641 
The Civil Wars begin ; Charles sets up his standard at 

Nottingham, Aug. 22 1642 

liaitle of Naseby, June 14 . . . . . . 1845 

Second Civil War; battle of Preston, Aug. 17 . . 1648 

Charles I. beheaded, Jan. 30 1649 

The v^ommonwealth ....... 1649 

Oliver Cromwell's campaigns in Ireland . . 1649 — 1650 

War with Scotland ; battle of Dunbar, Sept. 3 . . . 165Q 



xviii CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 

A.D 

Battle of Worcester, Sept. 3 1651 

War with the Dutch 1662—1654 

Cromwell turns out the Parliament, April 20 . , -1653 

The Protectorate :— Oliver Cromwell, Dec 16 . 1653 

Jamaica taken 1655 

Richard Cromwell . 1658 

The Long Parliament reassembles 1659 

The Convention meets, April 25 ; Restoration of King 

Charles II 1660 

The Plague Year 16 5 

The Great Fire of London 1666 

The Dutch bum the ships at Chatham .... 1667 

Secret Treaty of Dover 1670 

Habeas Corpus Act 1679 

James II 1685 

The Western Rebellion ; battle of Sedgemoor, July 6 . 1685 
Trial of the Seven Bishops, June 29 & 30 ; landing of the 

Prince of O.a.ige, Nov. 5 ; flight of James from 

Whitehall, Dec. . ' ; he leaves England, Dec. 23 . 1688 
The Declaration of Right ; the Convention bestows the 

crown upon William and Mary, Feb. 13 . . 1680 

The Toleration Act ; the Bill of Rights . . . 1680 

Battle of the Boyne, July i 1690 

Surrender of Limerick, Oct. 3 ^ 1691 

National Debt begins 1693 

Bank of England founded, July 27 ; death of Mary, 

Dec. 28 ; William III 1694 

Act of Settlement 1701 

Anne 1702 

Gibraltar taken, July 24 ; battle of Blenheim, Aug 2 . 1704 

Union with Scotland, May i 1707 

Peace of iJtrecht . 1713 

House OF Hanover : -George I. .... 1714 

[acobifc Rebellion 1715—1716 

Septennial Act 1716 

George II . 1727 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABL£. 



x\x 



battle of 



1808 



Battle of Dettingen .... 

Second Jacobite Rebellion 

Battle of Culloden, April i6 . 

Beginning of the British dominion in India 

Plassy, June 23 . 
Canada won ..... 

George III 

The North -American colonies declare their independ 

July 4 

War of the French Revolution begins 

Battle of the Nile, Aug. i 

Union with Ireland, Jan. i 

Peace of Amiens .... 

War with France renewed 

Battle of Trafalgar, Oct. 21 

Pitt dies, Jan. 23 ; Berlin I ecree issued, Nov 

The Peninsular War 

The Regency 

Battle of Waterloo, June 16 

George IV 

Catholic Emancipation Act, April 13 

William IV 

Liverpool and Manchester Railway opened 
Tlie Reform Bill, June 7 . 
Abolition of Slavery, Aug. 28 . 

Victoria 

Abandonment of the protective duties upon com 
The Crimean War ; battle of the Alma, Sept. 20 

The Indian Mutiny 1857 

Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick formed into one 

Dominion under the name of Canada 
The Reform Bill, Aug. 15 
The Irish Church disestablished 
Elementary Education Act, Aug. 9 . 

Ballot Bill 

The Queen takes the title of Empress of India, Jan 



A.D. 
. 1743 
1745-1746 
- 1746 



1757 
1760 
1760 

1776 
1793 
1798 
1801 
1802 
1803 
1805 
1806 
1814 
1811 
1815 
1820 
1829 
1830 
1830 
1832 
1833 
1837 
1846 
1854 
-1858 

1867 
1867 
1869 
1870 
1872 
1877 



GENEALOGICAL TABLES. 

{These Tables, being intended only to illustrate historical points 

mentioned in the text, are not to be taken as 

full genealogies.) 



GENEALOGICAL TABLES. 



KINGS OF THE HOUSE OF CERDIC, FROM EGBERT. 

(Pp. 19-40, 62.) 

EGBERT, 

r, 802-837. 

iETHELWULF. 

r. 837-858. 



iETHELBALD, iETHELBERT, ^THELRED I. ALFRED =Ealhswith. 
r. 858-860. r. 860-866. r. 866-871. r. B71-901. I 



EDWARD 

THE ELDER, 

r. 901-925. 



^THELSTAN, EDMUND = yfi-Z/^./w. EDRED, 
r. 925-940. r. 940-946. I r. 946-955- 



EDWY, 

r. 955-959- 



MthelJltBd = EDGAR 1= 2. ^Iftkryth. 
I r- 959-975- i 



>Wi 



EDWARD 

THE MAKTYR, 

r. 975-979- 



1. A^a;«^ = ^THELRED II. 



uncertain. 



EDMUND IRONSIDE, 
r. Ap. 23-Nov. 30, 

TOl6, 

m. Ealdgyth. 



r. 979-1016. 



Alfred, 
d. 1036. 



2. Ennna of 
Normandy = 2. Cnut, 

I r. loi 7-1035. 



EDWARD 

THE 
CONFESSOR, 

r. 1042-1066. 



HaithacnuL 
r. 1040-1042. 



Edmund, Edward, 

d. 1057, 
m. Agatha, 
(a kinswoman 0/ the Etnperor Henry II.). 



Edgar, Margaret, Christina, 

elected d. 1093. Abbess of Romsey. 

King in m. Malcolm III., 

1066. I^i»g of Scots. 

Matilda, 

d. 1118, 

w. Henry /., 

King 0/ 

England ' 



THE DANISH KINGS. 



THE DANISH KINGS. 

(Pp. 32-35.) 



SWEGEN FORKBEARD, 

d. 1014. 

CNUT = Emma of Normandy^ widow 
r. 1017-1035. I of King ^thelred II. 



Swegen. HAR6LD I. HARTHACNUT, 

r. 1035-1040, r. 1040-1048. 

{^Illegitimate.) 



XKIV 



GENEALOGICAL TABLES. 



DUKES 



OF THE NORMANS. 

(Pp. 25, 32, 37-80.) 



ROLF, 

ist Duke of the Normans, 

r. 911-927. 

WILLIAM 

LONGSWORD, 

r. 927-943. 
RICHARD 

THE FEARLESS, 
-996. 



r- 943- 



RICHARD 

THE GOOD, 

r. 996-1026. 



RICHARD in. 
r. 1026-1028. 



I 
Emma, 
I. JEtkelred II. oj 

England, 
2. Cnui of England 
and Denmark. 



ROBERT 

THE MAGNIFICENT, 

r. 1028-1035. 
WILLIAM 

THE CONQUEROR, 

r. 1035-1087. 



ROBERT II. 

r. 1087-1096. 

(from 1096 to 1 100 

the Duchy was 

held by his 

brother William,) 

and 1100-1106, 

(when he was 

overthrown at 

Tinchebrai by his 

brother Henry.) 



I 
WILLIAM 

RUFUS, 

r. 1096-1100. 



HENRY I. 

r. 1106-1135. 



Matilda, 
m. GEOFFREY, 

COUNT OF ANJOU 
AND MAINE 

(who won the 

Duchy from 

Stephen, 1145). 

HENRY IL 

invested with the 

Duchy 1 1 50, 

d. 1189. 



Adela, 

w. Stephen^ 

Count 0/ Blots 

and Chartres 

STEPHEN 

OF BLOIS, 

r. 1135-1145. 



RICHARD 

THE LION-HEART, 

r. 1189-1199. 



I 

JOHN, 

r. 1 199-1204. 

(when Normandy was conqaereo 

by France,) 



EDWARD III. HENRY IV. 



Claim of EDWARD III. to the French Crown. 

(P. 105.) 



PHILIP IV. 

THE FAIR, 

r. 1285-1314. 

I 



PHILIP in. 

THE BOLD, 

r. 1270-1285. 



LOUIS X. 

r. 1314-1316. 

I 

JOHN I. 
15 Nov. -19 Nov. 



PHILIP V. 

THE LONG, 

r. 1316-1322. 



CHARLES IV. 

THE FAIR, 

r. 1322-1328. 



Isabel, 
7n. Edward II. 
of England. 

Edward III. 
of England. 



Charles. Count 

of Valois, 

d. 1325. 



PHILIP VL 

OF VALOIS, 

r. 1328-1350. 
JOHN II. 

THE GOOD, 

r. 1350-1364. 



Descent of HENRY IV, 

(P. 118.) 



EDWARD 



HENRY III. 

I 



Edmund, 
Earl of Lancaster. 



EDWARD II. 



EDWARD III. 



Thomas, 

Earl of Lancaster, 

beheaded 1322. 



John of Gaunt, 
Duke of Lancaster. 



Blanche 
of Lancaster. 



Henry, 
Earl of Lancaster. 



Henry, 
Duke of Lancaster. 
I 



HENRY IV. 



G11.NEALOGICAL TABLES. 



HOUSE OF YORK. 



EDWARD 

I 









Lionel, Duke 
of Clarence. 






Philippa, 

w. Edmund 

Mortimer^ 

Earl of March. 






E 


Roger Mortimer, 
Earl of March. 

1 




Edmund Anne Morti- 
Mortimer, 
arl of March, 
d. 1424. 

Richard 
Duke of 
slain at 




EDWARD IV. 

1 


1 1 
Edmund, George, 
Earl of Rutland, Duke of 
slain at Wake- Clarence, 
field, 1460. m. Isabel Neville. 


A^ARI 

V. 


) Richard, Elizabeth, Katharine, Edward, Margaret, 
Duke of 7n. HENRY m. Sir Earl of Countess of 
York. VII. William Warwick, Salisbury, 
Courtenay. beheaded beheaded 








M99- T541, 

m. Sir Richard 
Pole. 

\ 



Henry 
Courtenay, 
Marquess 
of Exeter, 
beheaded 
1538. 

Ed ward 

Courtenay, 

Earl of Devon, 

d. 1556. 



Henry Pole, 

Lord 

Montagu, 

beheaded 

1538. 



HOUSE OF YORK. 



(Pp. 122, 135, 147 152, 165, 176.) 
III. 



Edmund of 

Langley, 

Duke of York, 



mer = Richard, 

Earl of Cam- 
bridge, 
beheaded 1415. 
Plantagenet, 
York, 
Wakefield, 1460. 



RICHARD III. 
ill. Anne Neville. 



Edward, 

Prince of Wales, 

d. 1484. 



Elizabeth 



John de la Poie^ 
Duke 0/ Suffolk. 



Margaret, 
Charles., Duke of 
Burgundy. 



John de la Pole, 

Earl of Lincoln, 

slain at Stoke, 1487. 



Edmund de la Pole, 
Earl of Suflfclk, 
beheaded 1513. 



Richard de la Pole, 

slain at the battle 

of Pavia, 1525. 



Reginald Pole, 

Archbishop of 

Canterbury, 

and Cardinal, 

d. 1558. 



GENEALOGICAL TABLES. 



C/) ^ 

< ^ 

cn ^ 
o 






.5^.- 















3 o ^";: 



:u 



X ^ 



>- ,^ !2 

c o "^ 












-0 3 a' 



O (U 



►->3 

Q 






SCQ 






Kv 



3 "^ 



•c t; g "1 D ►;■ 

?^cyo <^ ti 3 



t3 u o 



u aj o c, Ji 
3-^ £ 



■5 ^^ 



0^-= ir 



ffi^-a a 



s'i^ 



— Ul=J > 



^ 












o 

H <= o 

T3U a 
a Pi 

-a 






-(V 'M 






•a u _ 
'C a 



DAUGHTERS OF HENRY VU. 



> 

iz; 

X 

O 

h 2^ 
O^ 

X : 

h ^ 

h 

< 
Q 

W 

o 



— 03 



ftl 




^"1 




$ 

5 






III 






3 


•a o 


O I- 




<« 8^ 










_c))«</5 




*;> "5" 
























6 ?,^ 




2 *.■ s 


U H 










^^- 




-o-s 








11 


«V3 a 




D-a 










;L^ 












ti" 



r<^ 



^ 



K^ 






-!1 



>5 



a 



GENEALOGICAL TABLES. 



THE SOVEREIGNS 

Since the 



Robert, 

Duke of Normandy, 

b. about 1056, 

d. 1134. 

William, 

Count of Flanders, 

b. iioi, d. 1128. 



WILLIAM II. 

b. about 1060, 

d. 1 100. 



WILLIAM I. 

m. Matilda 
I 



Henry, 
ti55. d. 1 



183. 



RICHARD I. 
b. 1157, d. 1199. 



THE SOVEREIGNS OF ENGLAND. 



OF ENGLAND. 

Norman Conquest, 



b. about 1027, d. 1087. 
of Flanders. 



HENRY I. 

b. 1068, 

d. 1135, 

m. 1. Matilda of 

Scotland. 

Matilda, 
d. 1167, 
f«. 2. Geoffrey^ 
Count 0/ 
Anj'ou. 

HENRY II. 

b. 1133, d. 1189, 

fH. Eleanor, Duchess 

0/ Aquitaine. 



Geoffrey, 

b. 1158, d. 1186. 

in. Constance, 

heiress of 

Britanny. 

Arthur, 
Duke of 
iritanny, 
b. 1187. 



i 

A4ela, 

d. 1137. 

m. Stephef- 

Count of 

Blois and Char-^^-^ 

STEPHEN, 

d. 1154. 
tn. Matilda, 
Countess of Boulog"^^ 



Eustace, 

Count of 

Boulogne, 

d. 1153. 

JOH>;, 

b. 1166, d. 1216. 

in. 2. Isabel of 

A ngouleme. 

HENRY III. 

b. 1207, d. 1272. 

m. Eleanor of 

Provence. 

EDWARD I. 

b. 1239, d. 1307 

.m. I. Eleanor 

of Castile. 

EDWARD 11- 

b. 1284, 

murdered 1327. 

tn. Isabel of 

France. 

EDWARD III. 

b. 1312. d. 1377. 

tn. Pkilifpa of 

Hai?tault. 



Will-iam, 

Count of 

Boulogne, 

d. 1 160. 



\See nej:t pag€.\ 



XXXll 



GENEALOGICAL TABLES. 



THE SOVEREIGNS 



EDWARD 



Edward, 
Prince of 
Wales, 
b. 1330, 
d. 1376. 



Lionel, 
Duke of 

Clureiice, 
b. 1338, 
d. 1368. 



I. Blanche^ 
daughter of 
Henry, Duke of 
Lancaster. 



John of Gaunt, 

Duke of 

Lancaster, 

b. about 1340, 

d. 1399. 



3. Katharine 
Swynford. 



RICH. H. 

b. 1366, 

deposed 

1399- 



Philippa, 

///. Edmund 

Mortimer, 

Earl of 

March. 

I 

Roger 

Mortimer, 

Earl of 

March. 



HENRY IV. 

b. 1366, d. 1413. 

m. I. Mary 

Bohun. 



HENRY V. 
b. 1388, d. 1422. 
m. Katharine of 



John Beaufort, 
Earl of Somerset. 



John Beaufort, 
Duke of 
Somerset. 



France, who = 2. Owen Tudor. 



Edmund 
Mortimer, 
Earl of 
March, 
d. 1424. 



I 

Anne 

Mortimer, 

in. Richard^ 

Earl of 

Cam- 
bridge, 
ivho 7vas 
beheaded, 
1415- 



HENRY VL 

b. 1421, 

d. 1471, 

m. Ma7garct 

of Anjou. 



Edward, 

Prince of Wales, 

b- 14531 

slain at 

Tewkesbury, 

1471. 



Edmund 

Tudor, Earl 

of Richmond. 



Margaret 
Beaufort. 



HENRY Vn. 

b. 1457, d. 1509 



. Katharine = HENRY VIIL 
of Ar agon. b. 1491, d. 1547. 



MARY, 

b. T516, d. 1558. 
f. Pnilip of Spain. 



2. A nne Boleyn. 



■},.Janc Seymour 



ELIZABETH, 
b. 1533, d. 1603. 



EDWARD VI. 

b. 1537, d. T553. 



THE SOVEREIGNS OF ENGLAND. 
OF ENGLAND— continued. 
III. 



I 

I-,dmund of 

Langley, 

Duke of York, 

b. 1341, d. 1402. 



Richard, 

Earl of Cambridge, 

beheaded 14 15. 

m. A nne 

Moriiitier. 

Richard Plantagenet, 
Duke of York, 

slain at 
Wakefield, 1460. 



EDWARD IV. 

b 1442, d. 1483. 

///. Elizabeth 

II 'ydevile. 



I i 

George, Duke of RICHARD III 

Clarence, b. 1449, d. 1478. b. 1452, d. 1485. 
m. A ntie Neville. 



Elizabetli 
d. 1503. 



1 I 

EDWARD Richard, 
V. Duke of 

b. 1470. York, 

b. 1472. 



I 

Margaret, 

b 1480. d. 1541. 

'//. I. James IV. 

Kiii^ of Scots. 



James V. 

King of Scots, 

d . 1542. 

Mary, 
Queen of Scots, 
beheaded 1587. 

JAMES I. 

b. 1566, d. 1625. 

'.. Aline of Denmark. 

\See next page^ 



I 

Edward, 

Earl of 

Warwick, 

beheaded 

1499. 



1 

Margaret, 

Countess of 

Salisbury, 

beh. 1 541. 

in. Sir 

Richard 

Pole. 



\ 

Mary. 

. 1498, d. 1533. 

w. 2. Charles 

Brandon., Duke of 

Suffolk. 

Frances Brandon, 

m. Henry Grey., 

Dtike of Suffolk. 

I 

Jane Grey, 

beheaded 1554. 

nt. Lord Guilford 

Dudley. 



Edward, 

Prince of Wales, 

b. about 1476, 

d. 1484. 



GENEALOGICAL TABLES 



THE SOVEREIGNS 

JAMES 



CHARLES II. 

b. 1630, d. 1685. 



CHARLES I. 

b. 1600, beheaded 1649. 

7n. Henrietta Maria of France. 



Anne Hyde = JAMES II. 
I b. 1633, 
d. 1701. 



MARY, 

b. 1662, 

d. 1694. 

fn. 

WILLTAM 

III. 



2. Mary 0/ 
Modena. 



ANNE, 
b. 1665, 
d. 1714. 



James Francis 

Edward Stuart. 

the Old 

Pretender, 

b. 1688, d. 1766. 

I 

I 



Charles 
Edward 

Stuart, the 
Young 

Pretender, 
b. 1720, 
d. 1788. 



Mary, 

b. 1631, d. 1660. 

m. Wil'ia7U, 

Prince 0/ Orange 



WILLIAM III. 
b. 1650, d. 1702. 
m MARY OF 
ENGLAND. 



Henry 
Benedict 

Stuart, 
Cardinal 

York, 
b. 1725, 
d. 1807. 



THE SOVEREIGNS OF ENGLAND. 



OF ENGLAND.— continued. 
I- 



Elizabeth, 

b. 1596, d. 1662. 

ni. Frcdc7-ick, 

Elector Palatine. 

Sophia, 

d. 1714. 
m. Ernest A ugustus. 
Elector of Hanover. 



GEORGE I. 

b. 1660, d. 1727. 

m. Sophia Dorothea. 

o/Zell. 



GEORGE II. 

b. 1683, d. 1760. 

in. Caroline of 

Brandenburg- 

A nspach. 

Frederick, 
Prince of Wales, 
b. 1707, d. 1751. 

GEORGE III. 

b. 1738, d. 1820. 

m. Charlotte 0/ 

Mechlenburg- 

Strelitz. 

I 



SEORGE IV, 
£). 1762, d. 1830. 
m. Caroline of 
Brunsivick- 
Wolfenbuttel. 

Charlotte, 
J). 1796, d. 1817, 



WILLIAM IV. 
b. 1765, d. 1837. 



Edward, 
Duke of Kent, 
b. 1767, d. 1820. 



VICTORIA, 

b. 1819, 
m. Prince Albert of 
Saxe-Coburg and 
Gotha. 



Ernest Augustus 

King of Hanover 

b. 1771, d. 1851. 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND 

CHAPTER I. 

BRITAIN BEFORE THE ENGLISH CONQUEST. 

The Britons; Ireland and Scotland (i) — the Roman Con- 
quest; invasion of Julius Ccesar; Cassivelaunus ; de- 
scription of the Britons (2) — Claudius; Caractacus (3) 
— the Isle of Mona ; Boadicea (4) — Roman Britain ; 
Agricola; the Roman Wall; Hadrian; Severus 
{fj—the British Church ; St. Aldan (6). 

[. The British Isles.— England, the southern 
part of the Isle of Britain^ has its name from the 
Angles or English, a Teutonic people who, with other 
kindred tribes, came over from the mainland of 
Europe, and won themselves a new home in Britain. 
They found the land already occupied by a Celtic- 
speaking people, the Britons, who still exist under 
the name of Welsh. The Celts and the Teutons are 
'ooth branches of the great Aryan family of mankind, 
to which nearly all the nations of Europe belong ; 
and the earliest known Aryan inhabitants of Britain 
belonged to the Celtic branch \ but it is believed that 
before them the land was overspread by a people who 
were not Aryans, and whom the Celts drove into the 
west of the island. There are however no written 
records of the coming of the Celts, or oi the races 
which preceded them : so that our opinions are mainly 
formed upon the evidence afforded by bones, weapons, 



2 BRITAIN. [CHAP, 

and tools found in the caves which served the un 
known men of old for dwelling or burial-places, and 
in the tombs called cromlechs^ which still remain in 
many parts of Britain. In the island of Ireland^ 
formerly called lerne and Scotia, there was a another 
Celtic people, the Scots or Gael, who afterwards made 
a settlement in Caledonia or North Britain, which 
from them came to be called Scotland. Two Celtic 
languages are still spoken in the British Isles. These 
are the Gaelic, dialects of which survive in parts of 
Ireland, in the Isle of Man, and in the Western 
Highlands of Scotland; and the Cymric or Welsh 
tongue, which is spoken in Wales. 

2. The Roman Conquest. Julius Caesar. — 
At the time when our historical knowledge of the 
Britons begins, the Romans were the most powerful 
nation of the world : and it was their great general, 
Caitis Julius Cc^sar, who first attempted to explore 
Britain, which was still scarcely known except to 
those merchants who traded with the tribes on the 
sea- coast. Caesar was then governor of Gaul, the land 
between the Pyrenees and the Rhine, the greater part 
of which he had himself conquered. Finding that his 
enemies in Gaul had often received help from Britain, 
he determined to invade the island. He accordingly 
came over with two legions in August, b.c. 55, landing 
either at Walmer or Deal, after a sharp fight with the 
natives. The next year he came again, when he was 
opposed by a league of tribes under a chief called 
Cassivelaunus, whose fortified town or camp the 
Romans assaulted and took ; but neither time did 
Caesar make any lasting conquest, or leave any troops 
behmd him. He only saw the south-eastern part of 
the island ; the population, he tells us, was large, and 
the buildings and cattle numerous. Corn seems to 
have been plentiful about his camp in Kent, the 
Kentish people being, according to him, the most 
civilized in Britain. The Britons employed both 
cavalry and chariots in war, and were remarkable for 



I.] THE ROMANS IN BRITAIN. 3 

their skill in driving, and the activity with which they 
leaped down to fight on foot and sprang back again 
to their cars. They were in the habit of staining 
themselves blue with woad, to look more terrible in 
battle. Their priests were called Druids, and human 
sacrifices were offered to their gods. 

3. Claudius. — As Roman civilization spread in 
Northern Gaul, and commerce increased along the 
coast, Britain became much better known to the 
world, and carried on a larger trade. Its exports 
are said to have comprised corn and cattle, tin, 
lead, iron, gold and silver, besides skins, slaves, and 
hunting dogs. Pearls too were found, but of a poor 
kind. It was not however till the time of the Em- 
peror Claudius, who himself came over a.d. 43, that 
the Romans began really to conquer Britain. One 
who struggled the hardest against the invaders was 
Carddoc, called by the Romans Caractacus^ who at 
the head, first of his own tribe in the east, and then 
of the Silurians, a people dwelling by the Severn, long 
maintained the contest. He was at last taken and 
sent prisoner to Rome, where the Emperor, struck by 
his gallant speech and bearing, instead of putting him 
to death, the usual fate of a captive, gave him and 
his family their lives. It is told of Caradoc, that 
when, after his release, he walked through the stately 
streets of Rome, he asked bitterly why men thus 
magnificently lodged should covet the poor cottages 
of the Britons. 

4. Boadicea. — In the year 61, Suetofiius PaulinuSy 
the Roman governor in Britain, attacked the Isle of 
MoPia (now Anglesey), the refuge of those who stood 
out against the Roman power. A strong force of war- 
riors defended the shore ; the Druids stood around, 
calling down the wrath of Heaven upon the invaders ; 
women with streaming hair and torches in their hands 
rushed wildly to and fro. For a moment the Romans 
quailed with superstitious terror; but, recalling their 
courage, they advanced ; th^ defenders of tlie isle were 



4 BRITAIN. [CHAP 

overwhelmed, and the sacred groves, where captives 
had been offered in sacrifice, were destroyed. Mean 
while the subject Britons broke out into revolt under 
the leadership of Boadicea, widow of a King of the 
Iveniafis, a tribe dwelling in what are now Norfolk 
and Suffolk. This people had been cruelly oppressed 
by the Roman officers ; Boadicea herself had been 
scourged, and her two daughters subjected to brutal 
outrage. Breathmg vengeance, the Icenians rose in 
arms, stirring up the neighbouring tribes to join in 
the revolt ; while Boadicea, spear in hand, her yellow 
hair flowing below her waist, harangued her forces 
with fiery eloquence. The colony of Camulodu- 
num (Colchester) was stormed, and the colonists 
slaughtered by the insurgents. In like manner were* 
massacred the inhabitants of the Roman towns of 
Verulamimn (near St. Albans) and Londinium (Lon- 
don), which was already a great trading place. In 
modern times there have been found, below the soil 
of London, charred remains of wooden buildmgs, 
supposed to be those of the ancient Londinium, 
which was probably burned down by the Britons. Sc 
far they carried all before them, but on the return 
of Suetonius, they were routed with great slaughter. 
Boadicea died soon after — a natural death, as some 
say ; according to others, she poisoned herself ir. 
despair. 

5. Roman Britain. — The Roman dominion in 
Britain was gradually strengthened and increased. From 
the year 78 to 84 the governor of ih.t province^ the terri- 
tory subject to Rome, was Cnceus Julius Agricola. He 
extended the Roman dominions to the Firths of Forth 
and Clyde, securing the frontier by a chain of forts ; 
while a second Hne of defence was formed by similar 
forts from the Tyne to the Solway. The wild northern 
tribes called Caledonians were never subdued, although 
Agricoia defeated them in a battle on the Highland 
border. His fleet sailed along the northern coast and 
took possession of the Orkneys. Agricola was a wise 



J.] ROMAN BRITAIN. 5 

and good man, who ruled the province weh, checking 
^he extortions of the Roman officials, and encouraging 
the natives to build temples, courts of justice, and 
good dwelling-houses. Under his influence the chief- 
tains' sons learned to speak Latin, wore the toga or 
gown which was the distinctive dress of the Romans, 
and adopted the ways and manners of their con- 
querors. The greater part of Britain remained subject 
to Rome for more than three hundred years ; and its 
history during that time belongs to that of the Roman 
Empire generally. Great cities grew up. connected 
by a network of excellent roads, which crossed the 
country like our railway lines. Agriculture so throve 
that Britain became one of the chief corn-exporting 
countries of the Empire ; the mines were diligently 
worked ; tin was sought in Cornwall, lead in Derby- 
shire and Somersetshire — to use the names of later 
times — and iron in Sussex, Northumberland, and the 
Forest of Dean. But though the Romans gave the 
country government and a superficial civilization, 
they never made it thoroughly Roman. Latin pro- 
bably was spoken by the higher classes in the towns, 
but in the country the Celtic tongue held its ground. 
The Romans left their mark on the land more than on 
the people. Parts of their roads, often called streets 
— from the Latin strata^ a paved way — remain at 
this day. Chester^ eester, caste?', a word which enters 
into the names of many existing towns— as Win- 
chester, Leicester, Doncaster — has come down from 
the Latin castra, camp or fortified place. We still 
may see remains oi the strong city walls and other 
structures — for Roman builders made their work to 
last — and of the pleasant villas, the country-houses 
of the wealthy folk. Altars dedicated to the gods, 
tombstones bearing the names of the dead, inscrip- 
tions cut by the soldiers employed on public works, 
all tell us of the mighty people who once bore rule 
in this land. Most famous are the remains of the 
great military works in the North, where the fortifica- 



6 THE ENGLISH IN BRITAIN. [chap. 

tions had to be constantly strengthened against the 
restless Caledonians. In the year 120 the Emperor 
Hadrian visited Britain, and had the forts between the 
Tyne and the Solway connected by a ditch and 
earthen rampart. A similar dyke was raised along 
Agricola's northern line, about 139, in the reign of the 
Emperor Antoninus Pius. Still the Caledonians gave 
trouble, and about 208 the Emperor Severus not only 
drove them out of the province, but led an expedition 
into their country, returning to die in 211 at Eboraaim, 
now called Yorky which was then the chief city oif 
Britain. Severus seems to have strengthened Hadrian's 
wall with a second line of earthworks. Finally, the 
great stone wall along the same line, of which frag- 
ments still remain, was made about the end of the 
fourth or beginning of the fifth century. 

6. The British Church.— The Christian faith 
made its way in Britain as in other parts of the 
Roman Empire, but how or when it was introduced 
is not known. Its first martyr is said to have been 
St. Alban, who was put to death for his faith, 
about 304, near Verulamium. There, in the eighth 
century, an EngUsh King, Offa^ founded in his honour 
an abbey, round which grew up the town bearing the 
martyr's name. 



CHAPTER IL 

THE ENGLISH IN BRITAIN. 

Dec tine of the Roman power j the Picts and Scots, the 
Teutonic tribes ; Theodosius ; Britain left to itself', 
the English Conquest (i) — kingdom of Kent; legend 
of Hengest and Horsa ; kingdom of Sussex ; kingdom 
of Wessexj Arthur; Essex and Middlesex ;' kingdom 
of East Anglia ; of Northumberland : of the Mer- 
cians; the Bretwaida (2) — the British kingdoms (3) 
—religion {4.)— king and people; CEtheling^ earl^ 
churl, thane, atid slave {^)^government ; the Witan, 
township, hundred, and shire (6). 



a.J THE ENGLISH CONQUEST. f 

I The English Conquest. — In the fourth cen- 
tury, when tlie power of Rome was going down, the 
free Celts of the north — the Fids, as the Caledonians 
were now called, and their allies the Scofs — began to 
pour into Roman Britain, while other enemies attacked 
the island by sea. These latter were Teutonic tribes, 
speaking dialects of the Low- Dutch or Low-German 
tongue, who came from the mouths of the Elbe and 
the Weser in North-Germ.any. First among these 
tribes we hear of the Saxons, fierce sea-rovers, who 
were already known and dreaded on the coast of Gaul. 
Theodosius, a celebrated general who in 367 was sent 
by the Emperor Valeniinian to the rescue of Britain, 
drove the Picts and Scots back beyond the northern 
ramparts, and chased the Saxons from the coasts. 
But these successes gave only a temporary respite, 
and the Empire everywhere grew weaker, till at last, 
early in the fifth century, in the reign of the Emperor 
Honorius, the Roman troops were withdrawn from 
Britain, and the natives were left to resist their many 
enemies as they best might. Gildas, a British monk 
of the next century, tells of perpetual inroads of 
Scots and Picts, of appeals to the Romans for aid : — 
" The barbarians drive us to the sea, the sea drives 
us back to the barbarians : — " so ran the supplication. 
For a while the Britons beat off their foes ; but 
unused to freedom, they knew not how to govern 
themselves, and the land was given over to disorder 
and strife. Nor were the Picts and Scots their 
worst enemies. In the course of the fifth and sixth 
centuries, the greater part of the country was con- 
quered by the Teutonic invaders, the founders of 
the English nation, among whom three tribes stand 
out above the rest, the Angles ^ Saxons, and Jutes. 
These grew into one people under the name of Ayiglo- 
Saxons, or more commonly of Angles or English ; and 
the part of Britain they dwelled in came to be called 
England. They were fierce heathen, who slew or 



8 THE ENGLISH IN BRITAIN. [chap. 

enslaved those whom they overcame, and arove the 
rest into the western part of the island. Never having 
been under the power of Rome, nor taught to reve- 
rence her name, they cared nothing for her arts, lan- 
guage, or laws ; they kept their own speech and faith, 
their own laws and institutions, and remai^ied un 
touched by Roman or British influences. They spoke 
of the Britons as IVe/s/i, that is, strangers; while the 
Britons called them all Saxons; and to this day the 
descendants of the Celts in Wales, Ireland, and the 
Scottish Highlands, term a man of English speech 
and race a " Saxon." 

2. The English Kingdoms. — According to 
ancient tradition, the first Teutonic Kingdom in this 
island was that of Xen^, which has always kept its 
British name. Gwrtheyrn or Vortigern, a native 
prince, was ill-advised enough to invite two Jutish 
chiefs, the brothers Hengest and Horsa, to serve 
against the Picts. The strangers, coming over with 
their followers in three keen or ships, landed in 
449 at Ebbsfleet in Thanet, defeated the Picts, and 
then, thinking they might as well conquer for them 
selves, sent, over for their countrymen in North 
Germany, telling them how good the land was and 
how weak were its people. The Britons nevertheless 
had a long struggle with them ; the first battle re- 
corded in the ancient annals known as the English 
Chronicle took place at Aylesford, and cost the life 
of Horsa ; but the Jutish adventurers at last got the 
better, founding the Kingdoms of East and West 
Kent. The next Teutonic Kingdom was that of the 
South-Saxons or Sussex^ founded hy ^ lie, who in 477 
landed near the city of Regnuin, since called, after 
his son Cissa, Cissanceaster (now Chichester). Near 
where Pevensey now is, there stood the walled town 
of Anderida^ one of the fortresses which guarded the 
coast. In those days the sea flowed to the rising 
ground on which Anderida was placed, and ships 



ii.] THE ENGLISH KINGDOMS. 9 

could ride where now is a great bank of shingle. 
This town ^lle and Cissa took in 491, and a brief 
entry in the Chronicle tells us that they "slew all 
that dwell sd therein, nor was there a Briton left 
there any more." In 495 there came another body 
of Saxons, who, landing in what is now called Hamp- 
shire, founded the Kingdom of the West-Saxons 
or Wessex. Their leaders were Cerdic and his son 
Cyuric^ two Ealdormen^ that is, elders or chiefs, a 
title which, in the form of " alderman," is still in use. 
A British prince, Arthur by name, who has become 
more famous through the romances and poems about 
him than for his real exploit, about 520 defeated 
the Saxons at Badbury in Dorsetshire, and checked 
for a whole generation their advance westwards. But 
later on, they pushed their way, and a victory won by 
their King Ceawlin in 577 at Deorham in Gloucester 
shire, threw into their hands the Roman towns 
of Gloucester, Cirencester, and Bath. In the district 
about Colchester and London were the East-Saxons 
and Middle-Saxons^ as the names Essex and Middlesex 
still testify. North of the Thames the land was 
mainly occupied by the Angles. On the east coast, 
between the fens and the sea, was the Kingdom of 
East-Anglia, divided into the North-folk and South- 
folk (Norfolk and Suffolk). Between the H umber 
and the Forth lay Bernicia and Deira, and these, 
when united under one ruler, formed the Kingdom 
of Northumberlafid. The first King of the Ber- 
nician Angles was Ida, who began his reign in 547, 
and reared his royal fortress of Bamburgh on a rock 
overlooking the sea Ida's grandson JEthelfrith, who 
Tu^ed over all Northumberland, early in the seventh 
century defeated the Welsh at Chester with great 
slaughter. Before the fight began, the heathen King 
marked a band of Welsh priests and monks, many 
of them from the great monastery of Bangoi-Iscoed, 
who had come to pray for the success of their country 



to THE ENGLISH IN BRITAIN. [chap. 

men. " If they cry to their God against us," quoth 
he, ** they fight against us, albeit they bear not arms," 
and he caused his men to fall on and slay them. For 
nearly three hundred years from that time Chestei 
seems to have lain in ruins, though its Roman walls 
Aere left standing. The latest of the English king 
doms was that of Mercia, which grew out of a numbei 
of small Anglian settlements. The original Mercians 
— the men, that is, on the march or border — were the 
settlers about the head-waters of the Trent, in the 
borderland between the English and the Welsh. In 
time Mercia extended it:* power and name from the 
Humber to the Thames and the Lower Avon, thereby 
depriving the West-Saxons of some of their conquests. 
The seven chief kingdoms, Kent, Sussex, Wessex, 
Essex, Northumberland, East-AngUa, and Mercia, 
which stand out above the lesser kingdoms and 
states, are sometimes called by modern authors the 
Heptarchy, that is, the Government of Seven ; but the 
name is misleading, as the country was never parcelled 
out into seven states with settled boundaries. They 
were for ever fighting, not only with the Welsh, but 
among each other, and sometimes one prevailed and 
sometimes another. At times some one king gained 
a certain authority over his fellows, in which case he 
is termed in the Chronicle a Bretwalda^ or " Wieldei 
of Britain." 

3. The British or Welsh Kingdoms. — In 
the iriddle of the sixth century it seemed as if the 
island as far as the Firths was to be divided length- 
ways between the Welsh in the west and the English 
in the east. But by the West-Saxon conquests the 
Britons of West- Wales or Cof-nwall — that is, the present 
Cornwall together with Devon and great part of Somer- 
set- — were cut off from their brethren of North- Wales, 
the remnant of which is still called Wales. The con- 
quests of ^thelfrith and his successors in like mannci 
cut oflf the Britons of Wales from those beyond Chester 



II.] REJ.IGION AND GOVERNMENT. n 

Strathdyde, the territory of the northern British, which 
extended to the Firth of Clyde, long remained unsub- 
dued. Ebnet, the district round Leeds, was also an inde- 
pendent Welsh kingdom till the seventh century, when 
it was conquered by the Northumbrian King Edwin. 

4. Religion. — The faith of the English was much 
the same as that of the Teutonic tribes generally — 
heathenism, though not of a degraded form. Woden^ 
called by the Danes Odin, was their chief god, the 
giver of valour and victory ; after him came Thunor, 
that is, Thunder, better known by his Danish name of 
Thor^ the ruler of the sky ; and many other gods and 
goddesses The names of the days of the week, as 
Wednesday, Woden's day, Thursday, Thor's day, still 
preserve the memory of some of these deities. The 
name of the goddess Eostre (Easter), worshipped in 
the month of April, has passed to the Christian Feast 
of the Resurrection. Wyrd, that is, Fate, lives on in 
the word " weird," which in northern tales and ballads 
signifies a doom or curse inflicted by supernatural 
power. There was also a belief in spirits vho haunted 
the wilds and the waters, and in elves or fairies. 

5. King and People. — The English royal houses 
claimed descent from the god Woden; but, though 
the King was taken from the kingly line, he was never- 
theless elected ; and a child, or a man thought incom- 
petent, would be passed over in favour of a kinsman 
better fitted for the office. In early times the King 
was not looked upon as lord of the soil, but as leader 
of the people ; and thus in after days, when a single 
King ruled over all the English states, his usual title 
was " King of the English," not King of England. 
His sons and brothers were called ^thelings, a title 
originally given to nobles generally, but afterwards 
restricted to members of the royal house. From the 
seventh century onwards, we find part of the land held 
by individuals or small communities, and part — called 
folkland or public land- -belonging to the State 



12 THE ENGLISH IN BRITAIN. [chat 

\^Tieri the conquering English settled down, they 
were not numerous enough to occupy all the territory 
they had won, and thus there remained unallotted 
land at the disposal of the tribe or State. The King 
had his private estates like other people, and as he 
could, though at first only with the consent of his 
council, make grants of the folkland, it came to be 
looked on as the property of the Crown. Landowners 
were under a threefold obligation — to furnish men to 
serve in \\\tfyrd or militia, and to keep up the fortifi- 
cations and bridges. Freemen — for there were men 
who were " unfree " — were divided into two great 
classes, known as Earls and Churls^ terms best 
expressed by the words " gentle and simple ; " and 
in later days, the man who had no land of his own 
had to take some landed man for his " lord " or 
master, to be his surety and protector. Nowadays 
" my lord " is only a respectful manner of addressing 
a nobleman or a judge ; but of old, when one man 
called another " his lord," it meant that he owed him 
service and looked to him for protection. Every 
king or other great man had his own followers, called 
thegiis (now spelled thanes), who devoted themselves 
to his service in peace and war. As it was both 
honourable and profitable to serve a king, who could 
provide for his followers by grants of folkland. the 
thanes grew into a class of gentry and nobles, which 
supplanted the older nobility, the " earls " ; and at last 
the name of thane was given to all who owned a 
certain quantity of land. For the defence of the 
country every freeman was bound to serve in \ki^fyrd. 
Slaves were most numerous along the Welsh border, 
where many Welshmen were taken prisoners and made 
bondsmen. But men might become slaves in other 
ways than being captured in war. They might be 
driven by poverty to sell themselves, or be sold when 
children by their parents, or be enslaved by law be- 
cause they could not pay their debts or the fines the^ 



II.] GOVERNMENT. 13 

had incurred by some offence ; or they might be born 
in slavery. 

6. Government. — The King was not absolute (that 
is, he did not rule wholly according to his own will), 
but was bound to observe the laws and customs ol 
his people. He was moreover guided by a council 
or assembly, called the Witefia-gemot, that is, the 
Meeting of the Wise, its members being the Witan^ 
the Wise Men. It is probable that all freemen 
might take part in the Meeting, but if so, when the 
kingdoms grew fewer in number, and larger in extent, 
the mass of the people soon ceased to attend, because 
they had not the time or could not travel the distance. 
So the Meeting shrank on ordinary occasions into 
something more like our House of Lords, attended 
only by the great men— the Ealdormen, who were 
something like Viceroys or Lords-Lieutenant ; the 
King's thanes ; and, after the country became Christian, 
by the Bishops and Abbots. Sometimes, on great 
occasions, large bodies of people were present ; and 
in the eleventh century we hear of the citizens of 
London taking part in Meetings for the election of a 
King. The powers of the Witan were large; they 
elected the King; and they and he together made 
laws and treaties, and appointed or removed the 
officers of the State. In small matters the people 
governed themselves. The township had its own 
little meeting, still continued in part under the name 
of " parish vestry," for making its by-laws and settling 
its affairs. The township was sometimes independent, 
that is to say, the freemen owned the land ; sometimes 
it was dependent on a lord, whose tenants the towns- 
men were. So the hundred^ called in some parts of 
the country the wapentake, a union of townships, had 
a court and meeting for trying criminals and settling 
disputes ; and so too the shire, a cluster of hundreds, 
had its court and meeting, presided over by the 
Ealdorman, the Sheriff (that is, shire-reeve, magistrate 
of the shire), and the Bishop. 



CONVERSION OF THE ENGLISH. Jcha^ 



CHAPTER IIL 

CONVkRSION OF THE ENGLISH TO CHRISTIANITY. 

TA^ conversion of Kent {i)—the conversion of the North 
{2)— the Scottish mission (3) — the Synod of Whitby (4) 
— the Church of England (5). 

I. Conversion of Kent. — The heathen English 
had learned nothing from the Christian Welsh, and 
their conversion was first undertaken by a mission 
from Rome, which was still considered the greatest 
city of the Western world, and whose Bishop, com 
monly called Fope, that is, Father, was held to be 
chief of all Bishops. Gregory the Great, who was 
made Pope in 590, was said to have become interested 
in the English from seeing some beautiful fair-skinned 
and long-haired boys from Deira standing in the mar 
ket at Rome for sale as slaves. Well were they called 
Afigies, he said, for they had the faces of angels ; and 
sorrowing that those vvho were so fair of form should 
be in heathen darkness, he at once conceived a wish 
for the conversion of the English. So after he had 
become Pope, he sent to Britain a band of priests and 
monks having at their head Augustiiie, since known 
as Saint, who landed in 597 at Ebbsfleet ^thel- 
bert, King of Ke?it, who was the most powerful pjince 
in Southern England, had married Bertha, daughter 
of Charibert, one of the Frankish kings in Northern 
Gaul. The Franks, a Teutonic people, were Christ- 
ians; and ^thelbert, though himself a heathen, had 
agreed to allow his wife free exercise of her religion. 
He now consented to hsten to Augustine and his 
companions, The meeting look place in the Isle 



nL] CONVERSION OF THE NORTH. 15 

of Thanet, and, by ^thelbeit's wish, in the open air, 
because spells and charms, which he feared the 
strangei's might use, were supposed to have less powet 
out of doors. After hearing what they had to say, he 
gave them a house in the royal city of Canterbury, 
where they worshipped in the little Roman church of 
Saint Martin, in which Bertha was wont to pray. Ere 
long they converted -^thelbert himself, whose ex- 
ample was freely followed by large numbers. Augustine 
became the first Archbishop of Canterbury, and his 
cathedral church of the Saviour, which has since been 
many times rebuilt, was the metropolitan or mother 
church of England. In 604 he ordained two Bishops, 
of whom one had his see at Rochester, and the other 
at London, where King iEthelbert built for him the 
church of St. Paul. The Church services, introduced 
by the missionaries, were in Latin, which, though an 
unknown tongue to the English, was still the literary 
and official language in other parts of Western 
Christendom. 

2. Conversion of the North. — Eadwine^ 
or as we now write the name, Edwin, of Deira, 
ascended the Northumbrian throne in 617, and be- 
came the greatest King in Britain. On the northern 
frontier of his dominions his name lives in that of 
Edinburgh^ which he founded as a fortress. So strong 
and good was his government that, as the popular 
saying went, " a woman with her babe might walk un- 
harmed through the land from sea to sea \ " and it was 
told how, for the benefit of the thirsty wayfarer, he 
had brass cups hung up by the water-springs near the 
roads, and no man durst steal them. His wife 
j^thelburhy daughter of -^thelbert of Kent, was a 
Christian ; and to the Bishop Faulinus, whom she 
brought with her, the conversion of her husband 
was due. When the King was himself convinced, 
he gathered his Witan to debate whether they also 
should adopt Christianity. The assembled nobles 



[6 CONVERSION OF THE ENGLISH. [chap 

decided for the new creed, and the heathen High- 
Priest Coifi himself undertook to profane the idol 
temple of Godmanham. Riding up, he hurled a spear 
into it, and bade his followers set it on fire. The 
Minster of York, at first a simple wooden church, was 
founded by Edwin, who was there baptized in 627. 
But after Edwin in 633 had fallen fighting against the 
heathen Penda^ King of the Mercians, and the Welsh 
King Cadwalia, Paulinus fled with the widowed Queen 
to Kent, and Northumbrian Christianity seemed about 
to perish, wlien a deliverer arose in Oswald, since 
known as Saint, a son of ^thelfrlth. At a place 
called Heavenfield, near Hexham, Oswald set up a 
wooden cross — the first Christian sign reared in 
Bernicia — and there, with his little army, knelt and 
prayed for aid. The Welsh King fell in the ensuing 
fight, and thenceforward Oswald reigned over North- 
umberland till in 642 he too fell in battle with Penda. 
3. The Scottish Mission. — The Scots of 
Ireland had been converted to Christianity in 
the fifth century, chiefly by the famous missionary 
St. Patrick, who was most probably born neai 
Dumbarton. Christianity quickly took root and 
flourished in Ireland ; learning was there cultivated 
at a time when it had almost died out elsewhere ; 
foreigners resorted to the Irish schools, and Irisn 
missionaries went out to foreign lands. In the sixth 
century, St. Coliimba, an Irishman, had founded the 
renowned monastery of lonaj and had converted the 
Picts of the Highlands. King Oswald, having in his 
youth been baptized by the Scots of Britain, applied 
to them for a Bishop for his people. Aidan^ a monk 
of lona, was sent, and fixed his episcopal see in 
Lifidisfani^ since called Holy Island. Through his 
own and his countrymen's labours, the Northumbrians 
soon became Christians ; but the faith of the common 
people was often mixed with heathenism. In time 
of pestilence they had recourse to theii heathen 



THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 17 

charms and amulets, and many looked with no friendly 
eye on the monks who " took away the old worship." 
Cuthbert, a Northumbrian monk of Melrose who had 
been a shepherd in his boyhood, devoted himself to 
teaching and preaching throughout the villages, 
choosing particularly those among the hills which 
were so difficult to get at and so rude and wild that 
other missionaries passed them by. He was made 
Bishop of Lindisfarn in 685, and was afterwards 
revered as the great Saint of the North. The 
other English kingdoms were gradually converted 
during the seventh century, partly by missionaries 
from abroad, partly by men trained at Lindisfarn 
One of the early Mercian Bishops, Ceadda, who had 
his see at Lichfield, is still remembered under the 
name of "St. Chad.'' 

4. The Synod of Whitby.— The Church of the 
Irish Scots had ways of its own, notably as to the 
time for keeping Easter, which differed from those 
of Rome and the other Western Churches. Hence 
arose a controversy between the disciples of lona and 
those of Rome and Canterbury, till in 664 a synod 
was held in the monastery of Streoneshalh (now 
Whitby), where Hild, commonly called St, Hilda^ a 
woman of royal race, bore rule as Abbess over both 
monks and nuns There the Northumbrian King 
Oswy^ after hearing both sides, decided for the Roman 
customs ; upon which the Scottish Bishop of Lindis- 
farn, Colman, with many of his monks, withdrew to 
lona. Trifling as the points at issue seem, in its result 
the Synod was not unimportant, as it brought all the 
English Churches into agreement. 

5. The Church of England.— The work of 
organizing and uniting the English Churches was 
mainly carried out by Theodore of Tarsus, a man of 
Eastern birth and training, who was sent from Rome 
in 668 to be Archbishop of Canterbury. Each 
kingdom as it wp'^ ron verted had become a diocese, 

c 



i8 THE RISE OF WESSEX. [chap 

that is, a district under the jurisdiction of a Bishop ; 
but Theodore broke up most of these great dioceses 
into smaller ones, which in his time were all subject 
to the Archbishop of Canterbury. After Theodore's 
death an Archbishop was appointed for York ; but 
the province^ that is, the district under his jurisdiction, 
has always contained much fewer dioceses than tlie 
pravince of Canterbury. At first there were but few 
churches ; in many places there were only crosses, 
under which the missionaries sent out from the 
King's court or the monastery preached, said mass, 
and baptized ; but by degrees more churches were 
built, and priests settled down beside them. The 
township, or cluster of townships, to which a single 
priest ministered, was at a later time called his 
parish. During the early period of English history 
the Church was the chief bond of the nation. Politi- 
cally, Englishmen were divided into West-Saxons, 
Mercians, and so forth ; it was only as members of 
one Church that they felt themselves to be fellow- 
countrymen. Thus the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
whose word was respected throughout the English 
land, was, in his way, a greater man than any of the 
seven or eight Kings who were struggling and fighting 
around him. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE RISE OF WESSEX. 

Decline of Northumberland; Ine of Wessex ; Offa oj 
Mercia; Egbert, King of the English {\)—the Danes 
in England and Ireland (2) — ^thelwulf and his sc ns ; 
the Danish war; Ragnar Lodbrog; St. Edmund ( i)— 
Alfred; story of the cakes ; taking of the Raven ; Alfred 
in the Danish camp; Treaty of Wedmore ; Danish 



IV.] niK RISE OF WESSEX. l9 

settlemeiiis (4) — Alfred's govei'timetit j his death (5) — 
Edward the Elder; the Lady of the Merciafis ; Lord- 
ship of Britain (6) — Rolf the Northman; Normandy 
17). 

I. The Rise of Wessex. — For some time 

Northumberland took the lead among the Enghsh 
states ; but towards the close of the seventh century 
its power began to go down, and Wessex and Mercia 
then disputed the supremacy of the South. Wessex, 
which was ruled by the descendants of Cerdic, had 
grown by constant encroachments on the Welsh ; and 
InCi who became its King in 688, almost completed 
the conquest of Somerset. He was the founder of 
Taunton, a fortress for the defence of his new frontier, 
and tradition ascribes to him the building of a stone 
church for the monastery of Ynysvitrin or Glaston- 
bury, hard by an earlier wooden church of the Britons. 
Ine's ^^ dooms " that is, laws or judgments, are the 
earliest collection of West-Saxon laws which have 
come down to us, though there are written Kentish 
laws older still. Among the Mercian Kings the most 
famous is Off'ay who reigned from 757 to 796. He 
conquered a great part of the Welsh land of Powys, 
including its capital town of Pen-y-wern, now Shrews- 
bury, To guard his new-won land he made a great 
dyke — " Offa's Dyke " — from the mouth of the Wye 
to that of the Dee. Weesex rose to power under 
the great King Ecgberht or Egbert, who ascended the 
throne in 802, and brought all the English kingdoms, 
together with the Welsh both of Cornwall and of what 
we now call Wales, more or less into subjection. He 
was King of all the Saxons and Jutes, and Lord of the 
East-Angles, Mercians, and Northumbrians, whose 
kings submitted to be his men, or in later phrase, his 
vassals, owing him a certain obedience. Egbert, as 
the chief, though not the only king in the land, was 
thus able to call himself Kifig of the English. But 
hardly had Wessex established its supremacy when V 



ao THE RISE OF WESSEX Lchap 

found a new foe in the Scaiidinavian pirates, whose in 
creasing ravages troubled Egbert's later years. 

2 The Danes or Northmen. — The Scandi- 
navians or Northmen were a Teutonic people, who 
in course of time formed the Kingdoms of Sweden^ 
Dmmarkj and Norway. As those who entered Eng 
land were chiefly Danes, English writers commonly 
speak of the Scandinavians in general by that name. 
Among these people, as of old among their kinsmen 
the Angles and Saxons, piracy was an honourable 
profession, and wealth and fame were won in the 
roving life of a leader of pirates or Vikings. This 
last word, derived from vtk, a bay or creek, means 
" men of the bays," the natural harbours which 
afforded shelter to their vessels. They were thorough 
seamen, far ahead of other nations in the building and 
handling of sea-going vessels. Their practice was to 
sail up the rivers in their cbscs or ^^^-wood galleys, to 
choose some place for a fortified camp, and, obtaining 
horses in the country, make forays over the land, plun- 
dering, burning, and slaying. They spoke a kindred 
tongue to English, worshipped the same gods as the 
heathen English had done, and singled out with delight 
churches, monasteries, and priests for destruction. This 
was probably not so much from hatred of Christianity 
as because the religious houses, rich and defenceless, 
were tempting prey. For the most part the Vikings made 
iittle difficulty about forsaking their own religion when- 
ever there was anything to be gained by conversion. 
Never to flinch in fight, or to shed a tear even for their 
dearest kinsfolk, and to be as reckless in meeting as 
in inflicting death, summed up their ideas of honour 
and duty. The lesser British Isles became favourite 
Viking haunts, and Scandinavian princes ruled in Man 
and the Orkneys. Those who harassed Scotland 
were chiefly Norwegians, to whom in later days the 
name of Northmen was restricted. No people suffered 
more than the Irish, who, though in many respects 



fv.] THE DANISH WARS. 21 

more civilized than their neighbouis, were split into 
tribes and clans too much at variance with each 
other to make common cause against their better 
disciplined and armed invaders. Such order and 
civilization as Ireland had attained to died out in the 
course of the long struggle with the Scandinavians, 
who succeeded in fixing themselves at the mouths of 
the navigable rivers. Dublin, Limerick, and Waterford 
were their chief towns. 

3. The Danish Wars, ^thelwulf and his 
Sons. — Egbert was succeeded in 837 by his son 
^thelwuif, and he by his four sons, yEthelbaid, 
/Ethelbert, /Ethelred /., and /Alfred (or, as we now 
write it, Alfred), who all reigned one after the other, 
none of the first three living long. Under ^thelred 
began the great Danish war, as to the cause of 
which there are many Northern legends. One 
tale is that it was undertaken to revenge the death 
of Ragnar Lodbrog, a mighty Viking, who had been 
shipwrecked on the Northumbrian coast. There 
the King of the country, /Ella, threw him into 
a dungeon full of poisonous snakes, under whose 
bites he expired, chanting to the last a wild song 
recounting his exploits, and boasting that he would 
" die laughing." Much of this is, no doubt, fabulous, 
but there may have been a real Ragnar, and several 
of the chieftains who harassed the British Isles are 
called his sons. The known facts are that in 866 " a 
great heathen army " landed in East-Anglia, and in 
the two next years subdued Northumberland and 
Mercia. In 870 East-Anglia was again invaded, and 
its King, Edmund, was defeated and slain by the 
Danish leaders Ingvar and Ubba, sons of Ragnar. 
Edmund, according to legend, was offered his life and 
kingdom if he would consent to reign under Ingvar. 
On his refusal to submit to a heathen lord, the Danes 
bound him to a tree, scourged him, made him, in 
savage sport, a mark for their arrows, and at last struck 



11 THE RISE OF WESSEX. [chaf. 

off his head. He was honoured as a martyr, and the 
Church of St. Edmundsbury was afterwards erected 
over his grave. From the rapid success of the in- 
vaders, it would look as if the people north of Thames 
cared little whether their masters were Danes or West- 
Saxons. But when in 871 the Danes entered Wessex, 
they met with a stubborn resistance. 

4. .Alfred or Alfred, 871 — 901. — ^^r<fi/, when a 
child of four years old, had been sent by his father on 
a visit to Rome, where Pope Leo IV. adopted him as 
his godson. At nineteen he married, and it is said 
that during his wedding feast he was seized with fearful 
pain, which, baffling the medical skill of the time, 
harassed him for the next twenty years; if so, his 
bravery and vigour are the more remarkable. At 
the age of twenty-two he became King, and a hard 
fight he had of it. Soon after his accession Wessex 
obtained a respite, though the Danes still occupied 
Mercia and the North. But after a time the attacks 
upon Wessex were renewed, and early in 878 the army 
under Guthrum, a Danish chief who had possessed 
himself of East-Anglia, made a sudden march upon 
Chippenham, and thence overran the country. Many 
of the people fled beyond sea ; the rest submitted, 
while Alfred, with a few followers, disappeared among 
the swamps and woods of Somersetshire. At one time 
— so runs a tale which appears to have come to us from 
a ballad — he stayed in disguise with one of his neat- 
herds, who kept the secret even from his own wife. One 
day the woman having set some cakes to bake at the 
fire by which Alfred was sitting making ready his bow 
and arrows, returned to find her cakes burning in the 
sight of the unheeding King. Flying to save them, 
she roundly scolded him for his neglect to turn the 
cakes, which she said he was orly too glad to eat 
when hot. That same winter the Devonshire West- 
Saxons slew Ubba in battle, and captured the magic 
Raven banner which was said to have been woven 



1V.3 ALFRED. 23 

in one noontide by the three daughters of Ragnar and 
to be endowed with the power of foretelling victory or 
defeat. Things now began to mend, Alfred and his 
little band throwing up a small fort in Athelney, and 
thence making frequent sallies. There is a story that 
in order to ascertain the strength of the enemy he 
entered their camp in the disguise of a minstrel, and 
there stayed several days, amusing them and their King 
with his music until he had learned all he wanted to 
know. However this may be, in the spring time he 
mustered the forces of Somerset, Wiltshire, and 
Hampshire, and gave the Danes such a beating 
at Ethandun (probably Edington, near Westbury), 
that they soon yielded to him. Guthrum submitted 
to baptism ; and the Witan meeting at Wedmore, a 
treaty was made, by which the Danes received, as 
vassals of the West-Saxon King, East-Anglia, most 
part of the old kingdom of Essex, and all Mercia 
beyond the Ouse and the ancient road called Watling 
Street. That part of Mercia which the treaty as- 
signed to Alfred was placed by him under an Ealdor- 
man named yEthelredy to whom he gave his daughter 
/Ethelflced in marriage. A detachment of the Danish 
army, led by Halfdene^ one of Ragnar's sons, had 
.already settled in the North, where they divided 
central and eastern Deira — that is, the greater part 
of the modern Yorkshire — among themselves. Ber- 
nicia, although most likely subject to the Danes, 
seems to have been still occupied by Englishmen and 
ruled by English Lords at Bam burgh. After all 
.\lfred's labour, a large part of England remained in 
Danish hands, and consequently the English race 
became largely infused with Scandinavian blood. The 
Danish settlements may be, to a great extent, traced 
by the towns and villages whose names end m by, 
which answers to the English ton (town) or ham, 
Streoneshalh and Nojihweorthig got from the Danes 
their present names of Whitby and Derby. This last 



24 THE RISE OF WESSEX. [cv\? 

town, together with Leicester, Lincoln, Nottingham 
and Stamford, formed a sort of Danish league, known 
as the " Five Boroughs''' 

5. Alfred's Government. — Alfred worked a^ 
hard in peace as in war. He made a collection of 
dooms ; some taken from the Mosaic law, others from 
tlie old codes of ^^{thelbert of Kent, Ine, and Offa, 
adding but few of his own, because he said he did 
not know how those who came after him might like 
them. To guard against future invasions, he put the 
military forces of his dominions on a better footing, 
and kept up a fleet, doing all he could to revive the 
old seafaring spirit which seemed to have died out. 
His ships were partly manned by Frisians, a people 
inhabiting the coast from Holland to Denmark. 
Alfred gave largely to the poor and to churches 
founded monasteries at Shaftesbury and Athelney. and 
encouraged learned men, English and foreign, to 
instruct his people. Learning, he tells us in one of 
his writings, had so fallen off that when he came to 
the throne there were very few among the priesthood 
who understood the Latin services of the Church. 
He himself learned Latin, and translated many books 
from that language, often adding passages of his own 
composition. He sent out seamen to the North on 
voyages of exploration ; also embassies to the Pope, 
to the Patriarch of Jerusalem, and what is still more 
noteworthy, to India with alms for the Christian 
Churches there which had been founded, it is said, 
by the Apostles St. Thomas and St Bartholcmew. 
This was the first intercourse between England and 
the far-off Eastern land which now forms part of the 
British Empire. Alfred had other wars with the 
Danes, but his courage and determination carried him 
through all, and his last years were spent in peace. 
In 901 he died, and was buried at Winchester. 

6. Eadward or Edward the Elder, 901—925. 
—Alfred was succeeded by his elder son Edward^ 



v.] ^THELSTAN TO THE DANISH KINGS. 25 

who equalled his father as a soldier, though not as a 
scholar. He was well seconded by his sister yfithel 
flaed, who after the death of her husband carried on 
the Mercian government; and with her help, he re- 
covered from the Danish rule all Essex, East-Anglia, 
and Mercia. He became more powerful than any 
former King in Britain, for at his death he was King 
of the English as far as the Humber, and Lord of all 
Britain ; the princes of Wales, Northumberland, 
Scotland, and Strathclyde, all owning him for their 
lord. 

7. Rolf the Northman. — In those days there 
was a noted sea-rover, the Northman Rolf^ called in 
French Rou, and in Latin Rollo, and surnamed, it is 
said, " Gaiiger'' that is, the goer or walker, because 
he was too tall to ride ; for when mounted on one of 
the little horses of the North his feet touched the 
ground, Rolf spent many years in plundering, and 
at last fixed himself and his followers in and about 
Rouen. As he could not be dislodged, the King of 
the West- Franks, Charles the Simple, bribed him to 
peace by granting him the land at the mouth of the 
Seine with Rouen for his capital. Rolf became a 
Christian and proved a good ruler. He was the 
founder of a line of princes, called Counts or Dukes 
of the Northmen or Nor7nans ; and their land came to 
be called Normandy. In after days these Normans 
played a great part in the history of England. 



CHAPTER V. 

FROM .fiTHELSTAN TO THE DANISH KINGS. 

/Eihelstan; Brunanburh (i) — Edmund I. (2) — Edred; 
St. Dunstan ; Noi'thumberland made an Earldom (3) 
— Edwy ; the Monks and the Seculars / ^Ifgifu (4) 



i6 iETHELSTAN TO THE DANISH KINGS, [chap. 

—Edgar {^—Edward the Martyr (6) — ^thelred thi 
Unready ; battle of Maldon ; invasions of SwegeUj 
martyrdom of j^Elfheah {y)—the Danish Conquest ; 
death of S'wege7i ; restoratioft of ^thelred (8) — 
Edmund Ironside; division of England (9). 

1. iEthelstan, 925 — 940. — King ^thelstan, eldest 
3on of Edward, added to his kingdom Northumber- 
land, which however he was not allowed to keep 
without a struggle. To wrest it from him, Anlaf 
son of a Danish King who had reigned at York, 
and his cousin, another Anlaf, who ruled over the 
Dublin Danes, leagued themselves with the Scots 
under their King Constantine, and the Strathclyde 
Welsh ; but their united hosts were in 937 overthrown 
by ^thelstan and his brother Edmund at Brunaiiburhy 
a place somewhere north of the Humber. There is 
a tale that one of the Anlafs played the spy in the 
EngHsh camp, disguised, like Alfred before him, as a 
minstrel; and that ^thelstan and his nobles gave 
him money, which Anlaf, too proud to keep it, buried 
in the ground. The victory was complete for the 
time ; but for twenty years to come the Northumbrian 
Danes were constantly revolting and setting up Kings 
of their own. ^thelstan, who is described as a slight- 
made man with golden hair, and of courteous and 
dignified manners, died in 940. ^thelstan and many 
of his successors at times called themselves Emperor 
of Britain, to show that they wer^ lords of the island, 
and that the Emperors of East and West had no 
power over them. 

2. Eadmund or Edmund I., surnamed the 
Magnificent (that is, The Doer of Great 
Deeds), 940 — 946. — Ed^mmd, like his father and 
brother, had hard fighting with the Northumbrian and 
Mercian Danes. He overran Cumberland or Strath- 
clyde, and granted it to Malcolm /., King of Scots, on 
condition of receiving assistance from him in war. 
Edmund came to a sad end when still a young man. 



7.] EDRED AND EDWY. 27 

being stabbed by Liofa, a banished robber, who, having 
insolently seated himself at the royal board, resisted 
the attempts of the King and others to turn him out. 

3. Eadred or Edred, 946 — 955.— Edmund's sons 
being still children, his brother Edred was chosen 
K-ing, He took as one of his chief advisers, Dunstan, 
since known as Saint^ who had been as a boy at 
^thelstan's court, whence he was driven by the 
jealousy of his companions. He was even then noted 
for learning, and the young courtiers taxed him with 
a knowledge of heathen ballads and spells, which 
was thought to savour of sorcery. Afterwards he 
became a monk, and gave himself up to study, and 
to arts useful for the services of the Church, such as 
music, painting, and metal-work. When hardly two 
and twenty years of age he was by King Edmund 
made Abbot of Glastonbury. In Edred's days the 
last Scandinavian King of Northumberland, Eric^ son 
of Harold Blue-tooth of Denmark, was driven out ; 
and Edred placed the Northumbrians under an Earl 
or governor, Oswulf^ who was of the house of the 
Lords of Bamburgh. The title of Earl among the 
Danes answered to that of Ealdorman among the 
English. 

4. Eadwig or Edwy, 955 — 959. — Upon Edred's 
death, Edwy, elder son of Edmund, though still very 
young, was chosen King. The history of his brief 
and troublous reign is obscure, but jealousy between 
Wessex and the country north of Thames seems 
to have had a good deal to do with his difficulties. 
There was also a movement for the reformation of the 
Church which led to great disputes. The Danish 
invaders had destroyed many monasteries ; those 
which were left were for the most part monasteries 
only in name, the property being held by seculat 
clerks or clergy, who lived much as they chose. 
The seculat clergy were not monks, but lived in the 
woild, being parsons of parishes and canons sA 



28 iETHELSTAN TO THE DANISH KINGS, [chap 

cathedral and collegiate churches, and were often 
married, despite the feeling which had gradually grown 
up in the Western Church, that the clergy ought not 
to marry. There is said to have been much ignorance 
and vice among the seculars. The objects that those 
who desired a religious reform set before themselves 
were to restore the monasteries, to introduce a stricter 
rule of monastic life, and, as far as possible, to get the 
cathedral and other great churches into the hands ol 
monks, whom they hked better than secular clergy- 
men, married or unmarried. Dunstan, who had 
himself reformed his Abbey, and made it famous as a 
school, sympathized with the monks' party, though he 
was more moderate and cautious than many of its 
supporters. Edwy's marriage was another cause ot 
strife. It appears that his wife y£Ifgtfu (in Latin 
Elgtva) was related to him within one of the nu- 
merous degrees then forbidden by the ecclesiastical 
law of marriage, and that the monastic party 
therefore refused to consider her as the King's wife. 
Edwy, who was apparently in the hands of the party 
opposed to the monks, seems from the first to have 
behaved unwisely, quarrelling almost at the outset of 
his reign with Dunstan, and driving him out of the 
country. Whether by his treatment of Dunstan, his 
marriage, or his government in general, the King gave 
offence, and in 957 all England north of Thames 
revolted, choosing Edwy's brother Edgar for its King. 
The next year Archbishop Oda prevailed on Edwy to 
divorce ^Ifgifu. There is a story, which happily rests 
on no good authority, that Oda had her branded in 
the face and banished, and that when she ventured 
to come back, she was seized at Gloucester, and put 
to a cruel death. Nothing is really known of hei 
end; as for Edwy, he died in 959. 

5. Eadgar or Edgar, surnamed the Peace- 
ful, 959 — 975. — Edwy's brother King Edgar, z youth 
of sixteen, was now chosen King over the whole 



^.] EDWARD THE MARTYR. 29 

nation — " West-Saxons, Mercians, and Northum- 
brians." His reign proved peaceable and prosperous, 
and by maintaining a strong fleet, he kept the 
country from invasion. Dunstan, now Archbishop of 
Canterbury, was his counsellor ; and, though in many 
churches secular priests were turned out to make way 
for monks, Dunstan was too much a statesman 
to take a violent part in the movement Thirteen 
y^ears after his accession to the throne, Edgar was 
crowned with great solemnity at Bath in 973. He 
••hen sailed with his fleet to Chester, where some 
six or eight of his vassal Kings with their fleets 
came and swore to do him faithful service by land and 
sea. Tradition adds that, in token of their submission, 
they rowed Edgar, who himself acted as steersman, 
in a boat on the Dee, from his palace at Chester to 
the Church of St. John and back. There is another 
tradition that Edgar exacted of Idwal, a rebellious 
North-Welsh prince, a tribute of three hundred wolves' 
heads yearly, and that Idwal paid this for three years, 
but omitted it in the fourth, declaring that he could 
find no more. Edgar left by different wives two sons, 
Edward and ^thelred, one about twelve and the 
other about six years old. 

6. Eadward or Edward, surnamed the 
Martyr, 975 — 979. — There was much disorder after 
Edgar's death, for the parties of the monks and the 
seculars at once began to quarrel again. Besides 
this, there was a dispute as to which of Edgar's sons 
;-hould be King ; but finally the elder, Edward^ was 
chosen. After a reign of less than four years, the 
voung King was murdered at Corfes Gate (Corfe 
Castle). He was called '' the Martyr," a name which 
the English then readily gave to any good man un- 
justly slain. The story goes that young Edward, 
returning tired and thirsty from hunting, stopped at 
the door of his stepmother, .Elfthryth (ir. Latin 
Elfrida). She came out to welcome him ; but while 



30 iETHELSTAN TO THE DANISH KINGS, [chap 

he was eagerly draining the cup presented to him, he 
was stabbed by one of her attendants. He at once 
put spurs to his horse and galloped off, but sinking 
from the saddle, his foot caught in the stirrup, and he 
was dragged along till he died. It is added that the 
child ^thelred, for whose sake the murder had been 
committed, on hearing of his brother's death burst 
into tears, at which ^Ifthryth in passion beat him till 
he was almost senseless. 

7. iEthelred II., surnamed the Unready, 
979 — 1016. — JE,thelred was only ten years old when 
raised to the throne. Dunstan seems for some 
time before his death, which happened in 988, to 
have taken no part in the government, and ^thelred, 
when he grew up, let himself be guided by unworthy 
favourites, so that everything went to wrack and 
ruin. Weak, treacherous, and cruel, he was always 
leaving things undone, or doing them at the wrong 
time ; so that he is known in history as " the Un- 
ready," that is, the Uncounselled, probably in allusion 
to his name yEthel-red, which means Nobh-in-counsd, 
Want of union left the country an easy prey to 
the Danes and Norsemen, who had, within two 
years of his accession, renewed their invasions. Each 
Ealdorman went his own way, making himself as 
independent as he could ; and men cared little 
for the King or the nation, though they often 
fought valiantly for their town or their shire. Thus 
in 991, Brihtnoth^ the aged Ealdorman of the East- 
Saxons, fell fighting against Norwegian vikings at 
Maldon. We read the details in the fragment of a 
poem which has come down to us. " The loathly 
strangers," so it runs, had offered to withdraw on 
payment of money, to which Brihtnoth answered that 
he and his men would "give them spears for tribute." 
But the plan of buying off the invaders with large 
sums was soon afterwards adopted by the King and 
his advisers. The land-tax called Danegeld, which 



v.] THE DANISH CONQUEST. 31 

continued to be levied long after the Danish invasions 
had ceased, was originally imposed for the payment 
of these tributes. Nothing could have suited the 
pirates better, and again and again they came to slay 
and plunder, sure of being bought off in the end. In 
99 \, and again in 1003, the King of the Danes, Swend 
or Sivegen ^^ Forkbeard,'' who had been baptized when 
a child, but had returned to heathenism, invaded the 
country, and proved a terrible foe. In 10 1[ the 
Danes under one Earl Thurkill took Canterbury, 
carrying away, for ransom or for slavery, a vast 
number of captives. Among these was the Arch- 
bishop ^Ifheah, who at first agreed to ransom 
himself, but afterwards refused, being too poor to 
pay, and unwilling to raise the money from his 
already impoverished people. In a fit of drunken 
fury the Danish warriors pelted him with stones and 
ox-bones, in spite of the remonstrances of Thurkil), 
who offered all the money he had, or might be able 
to get — anything except his ship, the dearest posses- 
sion of a Viking — to save the holy man's life. At 
last one of the Danes, in pity of the Archbishop's 
suffering, clove his head with a battle-axe. This is 
said to have happened at Greenwich, where the 
parish church of St. Alphege (a later form of the 
name of ^Ifheah) still reminds us of the murdered 
Archbishop. 

8. The Danish Conquest. King Swegen. 
— At last, in 1013, Swegen wrested the kingdom from 
/^thelred. Sailing up the Trent, he obtained with- 
out a blow the submission of the country beyond 
Watling Street. Northumbrian and Mercian forces 
swelled his army on its march southwards, and 
Wessex, terror-stricken by his cruelties, was soon 
conquered. It must be noted to the credit of London 
that it beat off the invaders four times during this 
reign, only yielding after all the rest of the country 
had done so. Swegen being now acknowledged a§ 



32 THE DANISH KINGS. [chap 

King, iEthelred followed his wife Emma, who had 
taken shelter with her brother, Duke Richard the Good 
of Normandy. Early the next year Swegen died — 
smitten, so men fancied, by the wrath of the Martyr 
King Edmund, from whose town of Bury, undei 
threats of destruction to town and townsfolk, church 
and clergy, ht, had demanded tribute. Upon this 
<^thelred was recalled, but he died soon after, while 
die war was being kept up between his son Edmund 
and Swegen's son C7iut. 

9. Eadmund or Edmund II., surnamed 
Ironside, April 23 — Nov. 30, 1016. — Two rival 
Kings were now elected, Edmund, ^thelred's son 
by his first marriage, being chosen in London, and 
Cnut at Southampton. Edmund, whose strength 
and valour gained him the name of Ironside, fought 
six pitched battles against his rival, but was at last 
induced to share the kingdom with him. Edmund 
had all south of the Thames, together with East- 
Anglia, Essex, and London ; Cnut took the rest. On 
Nov. 30th in the same year Edmund died, after a 
seven months' reign. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE DANISM KINGS. 

Cnut the Dane; his Kingdoms ; the great Earldoms (i) — 
story of Cnut and the waves (2) — Harold I. ; division 
of the Kingdom between Harold and Harthacnut; 
death of Alfred; England reunited ; (3) — Hartha- 
cnut (4). 

I The Danish Line. Cnut or Canute, 
1017 — 1035. — C;zz// the Dane was soon acknowledged 
as King of all England. He had for some time pro- 
fessed Christianity, and though his earlier deeds were 




.^, 



^V^- K 1 N G D 0^1^ 



L^ 



VI.] CNUT THE DANE. 33 

those of a savage, in the end he proved a good ruler. 
The late King's two infant sons he sent to his half- 
brother Olaf, King of the Swedes, praying him to put 
them to death. The Swede however placed them 
unhurt under the care of the King of the Hungarians. 
Towards the people in general Cnut showed nothing 
of this cruel and suspicious temper, his aim being 
to win their tnist and to rule as an English King. 
He gathered about him a standing force of from 3,000 
to 6,000 paid soldiers, Danes, Englishmen, and recruits 
from all parts of Northern Europe ; but we never hear 
of his employing these Housecarls — household troops, 
as we should now say — for purposes of oppression. 
Besides being King of England and Denmark, he 
also won Norway and part of Sweden ; but he spent 
most of his time in England, which he liked better 
tnan his other dominions. He divided the country 
into four great governments or Earldoms — Wessex^ 
Mercia^ Easi-A?iglm, and Northumberland. This last 
Earldom now extended only from the Humber to the 
Tweed, as Lothian^ that part of the old Northumbrian 
kingdom which lay beyond the Tweed, was held by 
the King of Scots, and so grew into part of Scotland. 
Besides the great Earls, who wielded well-nigh royal 
power, there were many lesser earls, subordinate 
governors of one or more shires ; and the original 
fourfold division was not strictly adhered to. Thus 
Northumberland was sometimes split in two, and 
rather later on, the southern part, which answered to 
the ancient Deira, began to be distinguished as York- 
shire^ while the northern part, as far as the Tweed, 
alone retained the name of Northumberland. Of 
C nut's Earls, the most notable was an Englishman, 
Godwin^ on whom the King bestowed the hand of a 
Danish woman of high rank — Gytha, sister of Cnut's 
brother-in-law Ulf — and the Earldom of Wessex. 
Cnut died at Shaftesbury in 1035. Not long after 
his accession, he had married Emma of Normandy 

D 



34 THE DANISH KINGS. 

the widow of King ^thelred, and by her had one 
son, Harthac7iiU. 

2. Story of Cnut and the Waves.— Of the 
legends about Cnut, the most famous is that which 
records how he one day, during the height of his 
power, ordered a seat to be placed for him on the 
sea-shore, and bade the rising tide respect liim as its 
lord, nor dare to wet him. The waves, regardless of 
the royal command, soon dashed over his feet, and 
the King leaped back, saying, *' Let all the dwellers 
on earth know that the power of Kings is vain and 
worthless, nor is there any worthy of the name of 
King but He whose will heaven, earth, and sea obey 
by eternal laws." Thenceforth he never wore his 
crown, but placed it on an image of our Lord on the 
Cross. 

3. Harold I., 1035— 1040. — -ffarfAacnu/ succeeded 
his father in Denmark, but in England his friends. 
Earl Godwin and the West-Saxons, could only obtain 
for him the rule of the country south of Thames. 
North of that river the kingdom was given to Cnut's 
illegitimate son Harold. During this divided reign, 
the ^theling Alfred^ younger son of ^thelred and 
Emma, came over from Normandy, probably hoping 
for a chance of the kingdom. He was seized by 
Harold's men and carried off to Ely, where, his eyes 
being put out, he died soon after. Earl Godwin was 
always suspected of having betrayed the ^Etheling ; 
but the accounts are so confused, that it is hard to 
judge. In the next year, 1037, Harold was made 
ruler over the whole country, his fellow-King having 
never yet left Denmark. 

4. Harthacnut, 1040 — 1042. — On Harold's death 
in 1040, Harthacnut was called to the throne, but his 
government was so bad that the nation soon rued its 
choice. He enraged his subjects by the heavy taxes 
he imposed for the payment of his fleet, and disgusted 
diem by having the dead body of his half-brotiiei 



I 



vii.] EDWARD THE CONFESSOR 35 

Harold dug up and cast into a fen. The London 
Daiifes buried the corpse again in their own burying 
ground, the memory of which is still preserved in the 
name of the church of St. Clement Danes. In 1042 
Harthacnut died suddenly at a marriage-feast at Lam- 
beth. By his death England and Denmark became 
separated. 



CHAPTER VII. 

FROM EDWARD TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 

Edward the Confessor ; the favourites ; Earl Godwin ; 
his banishment, return, and death; Earl Harold (i) 
— the Northern Earldoms (2) — death of Edward; 
Westminster ; Harold named as successor (3) — Harola 
11. ; Duke William of Nortnandy (4) — invasion oj 
Harold Hardrada and Tostig; battle of Stamfora 
Bridge (5) — the Nortnan invasion ; battle of Hastings , 
fall of Harold (6) — election of the /Et he ling Edgar ; 
coronation of William (7). 

I. iious;; of Cerdic. Eadward or Edward 
the Coniessor or Saint, 1042 — 1066. 
— The old Royal line was now restored, Edward, the 
elder son of Jfethelred and Emma, being elected to 
the throne. Unluckily, the new King, brought up in 
Normandy from boyhood, was no better than a foreigner. 
The Normans indeed were Scandinavians by descent ; 
but their manners, ideas, and language were French, 
and the English commonly called them " Frenchmen." 
Edward's chief desire was to bring over to England 
his foreign friends, and to load them with honours, 
offices, and estates. A Norman monk, Robert oj 
Jumieges, whose influence was described as being 
Such " that if he were to say a black crow was white, 
the King would believe him rather than his own 

D t 



36 EDWARD TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST, [chaf 

eyes," was made Archbishop of Canterbury. Earl 
Godwin however, who at the beginning of the reign 
was the King's chief adviser, kept the foreigners in 
check as much as he could. A wise and eloquent 
statesman, Godwin in the main served his country well, 
but at the same time had a keen eye to his own in- 
terests. His possessions, acquired by grants from suc- 
cessive kings, were enormous ; his daughter Edith 
was married to the King, and his two elder sons and 
his nephew were provided with earldoms. Naturally 
he was regarded with jealousy by the other great 
Earls, and still more so by the French favourites, who 
at last found an opportunity to overthrow him. In 
105 1 Eustace^ Count of Boulogne^ the husband of King 
Edward's sister, being on his way home from a visit to 
the English court, had a brawl with the burghers of 
Dover, arising out of his own insolent conduct. God- 
win refused to inflict any punishment upon the Dover 
men, who belonged to his Earldom, before they had 
been heard in their own defence; and the quarrel 
which consequently arose between him and the King 
ended in Godwin and all his sons being outlawed, 
The next year he came back from Flanders at 
the head of a fleet, and the Norman knights and 
priests were glad to get away as fast as they could. 
Archbishop Robert, and Ulf, the Norman Bishop of 
Dorchester, with their followers, forced their way 
through the east gate of London, and fled over sea. 
Earl Godwin died not long after, being seized with a 
fit while dining with the King ; but his Earldom and 
his power passed to his son Harold, who in fact ruled 
the kingdom, and who gained great credit by his 
victories over the Welsh. 

2. The Northern Earldoms. — In 1055 died the 
Earl of the Northumbrians, Shvard " the Strong^' a 
fierce and stalwart Dane, familiar to us by name as 
figuring in Shakspere's play of Macbeth. Of his last 
moments a tale is told, which, whatever may be its 



VII.] DEATH OF EDWARD. 37 

truth, shows what was supposed to be the spirit of 
a Northern hero. When he felt his end drawing nigh, 
he exclaimed against the shame, as he deemed it, ol 
dying, not in battle, but of disease. — " the death of 
cows." So he had his armour put on, and his axe 
placed in his hand, that he might at least die in 
warrior's garb. Tostig, a younger brother of Harold, 
was appointed in his stead ; but the new Earl's rule 
proved so harsh that in 1065 ^^e North countrymen 
revolted, and setting up a Mercian noble, Morcar, as 
their Earl, succeeded in getting Tostig outlawed. 
Morear's elder brother Edwin was already Earl of 
the Mercians, and the dream of the two throughout 
life seems to have been to form their governments into 
an independent kingdom. 

3. Death of Edward. — King Edward died in 
1066, having lived just long enough to finish the 
building of an abbey on the spot where Scsbert, first 
Christian King of the East Saxons, had founded a 
small monastery to St. Peter, called the Wesi-Minster, 
In the thirteenth century King Henry HI. and hi^j 
successor replaced Edward's work by the more mag- 
nificent church now standing. On his deathbed the 
childless Edward recommended Earl Harold for his 
successor; though, according to the Normans, he 
had promised that their Duke, William, should reign 
after him. Indeed, it is said that Harold himself, 
being once at the Norman court, had, willingly or 
unwillingly, sworn to support William. In that age 
an ordinary oath of homage (that is, the oath by 
which one man made himself the vassal of another) 
was broken with little scruple ; and therefore, accord- 
ing to one tale, the wily Duke had entrapped his 
guest into unwittingly swearing on all the holiest relics 
in Normandy. King Edward was soon honoured as 
a saint ; for, though he neglected his duties as a 
ruler, he was of gentle disposition, and the miseries 
the people endured under his foreign successors led 



Jib EDWARD TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST, [chap 

th.u: to look back upon him with regret. In latei 
days the title of Confessor, which the Church was 
wont to bestow upon those who were noted for their 
holy life and death, was conferred upon him. 

4. House of Godwin. Harold II., Jan. 6 — 
Oct. 14, 1066. — On the day of Edward's death, Earl 
Harold, though not of the Royal house, was elected 
King by the Witan ; the next morning the late King 
was buried, and the new one crowned, in the West- 
Minster. On hearing of this, Duke William of Nor- 
mandy was speechless with rage. He resolved to 
appeal to the sword ; but as it did not suit him to 
appear a wrongful aggressor, he did his best to make 
Europe believe he was in the right. He sent to Rome 
to crave a blessing upon his enterprise, and found 
there an ally in the Archdeacon Hildebrand (afterwards 
Pope Gregory VII.), who eagerly seized the opportu- 
nity for bringing the Church of England into more 
complete obedience to Rome. Under Hildebrand's 
influence the Pope, Alexander II., declared William 
the lawful claimant, and sent a consecrated banner to 
hallow the attack upon England. 

5. Invasion of Harold Hardrada. — Mean- 
while the North of England was invaded by Harold, 
the King of the Norwegians, a gigantic warrior, sur- 
named, from the harshness of his government, Hard- 
rada, that is, Stern-in-cowisel. He was joined by the 
exiled Tostig ; and Icelanders and Orkneymen, Scots 
and Irish Danes, flocked together under the " Land- 
Waster," as the Norwegian standard was called. The 
invader had already received the surrender of York, 
when Harold of England came suddenly upon the 
Norwegian army at Stamford Bridge, Sept. 2Sth. In 
Scandinavian legend the English King is represented 
as offering Tostig a third of the kingdom if he would 
return to his allegiance ; Tostig asked what his brother 
would give Hardrada "for his toil in coming hither?" 
"Seven feet of the ground of England, or more 



cii.] BATTLE OF HASTINGS 39 

perchance, seeing he is taller than other men.*' But 
there can have been no time for such parley. The 
English gained a complete victory, Hardnida and 
Tostig being among the slain. 

6. Battle of Hastings or Senlac. — The King 
was holding the customary victory-feast at Yoik, when 
a thane of Sussex entered with the tidings that the 
Normans had landed at Pevensey. Duke William, 
after waiting more than six weeks for a south wind, 
had at last set sail, had landed unresisted on the 
defenceless Sussex shore, Sept. 28th, and occupied 
Hastings, With the utmost speed, Harold marched 
to London, calling all to his standard — a summons 
which was readily obeyed, save by the half-hearted 
Edwin and Morcar, who delayed bringing up their 
forces. From thence he again set out, and pitched 
his camp on the height called Senlac^ about seven miles 
from Hastings. The eve of battle, so the Normans 
averred, was spent by the English in drinking and sing- 
ing, and by the invaders in prayer and confession. On 
the 14th October the armies joined battle. The combat 
was long and doubtful, but the impatience of some oi 
the shire levies, who, despite Harold's previous orders, 
broke their ranks and rushed down the hill in pursuit 
of some retreating enemies, gave the first advantage to 
the Normans, whose archers did the rest. An arrow 
pierced the eye of the English King, who, falling, was 
hacked in pieces by four French knights, of whom 
Eustace of Boulogne was one. The thanes and house- 
carls were slaughtered almost to a man around the 
fallen standard of their King. On the morrow the aged 
Gytha craved the body of her son Harold, but the 
Duke refused to permit it Christian burial. Even to 
find the mangled corpse was no easy task, and two 
canons of Waltham, who had followed the English 
army, made search for it without success, until they 
brought a former favourite of Harold's, Edith '^ of the 
Swan's Neck'* to aid them. 



40 THE OLD-ENGLISH AND NORMANS. Fchap. 

7. Coronation of William. — The Londoners, 
together with such of the great men as were at hand, 
now elected to the throne the young JEtheling Edgar ^ 
the grandson of Edmund Ironside. But though Edwin 
and Morcar, who on the news of Harold's fall had 
hastened their march, consented to the youth's election, 
they were cold in his cause, and soon betook them 
selves home with their forces. Thus left unsupported, 
those in London ere long tendered the crown to the 
Norman Duke, then at Berkhamstead. On Christmas 
Day, William the Norman — the Cotiqueror^ as he is 
called in history — was crowned King at Westminster. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE OLD-ENGLISH AND NORMANS. 

The Old-English (1) — the ordeal (2) — the slave-trade (3; 
— London (4) — language (5) — literature (6) — the Nor- 
mans ; the Bayeux Tapestry (7) — castles; church- 
building iZ)— feudal tenures ; fealty^ homage^ and 
service ; knights and baro7ts ; decay of feudalism; 
villainage (9) — government (10) — the towns: the 
gilds (11). 

I. The Old-English.— The English appear to 
have been a well-favoured race, from the days of 
Pope Gregory's " Angels " to the time when King 
William, returning to Normandy after his coronation, 
carried in his train the ^thehng Edgar and other 
young Englishmen, on whose " girlish grace " and 
flowing hair the French and Normans gazed with 
admiration. Yet young Earl Wa/theof one of those 
whose beauty is thus praised, attained to giant 
strength, and proved that he was no degenerate son of 
his father, Earl Siward the Strong. The ancient English 



van.] THE ORDEAL. 41 

weapons were the javelin and the broadsword , for 
the latter Cnut substituted the two-handed Danish 
axe. The full equipment of the warrior — helm, mail- 
coat, shield, and axe — was of course beyond tne 
.neans of the mass of the shire levies, most of whom 
came to the battle of Hastings without any defensive 
armour, and some with no better weapons than forks 
or sharpened stakes. Both English and Danes always 
fought 01. foot ; men of the highest, even of kingly 
rank, using horses on the march only, and dismount- 
ing for action. The English, among whom all ranks 
exercised liberal hospitality, are described as spending 
their substance in good cheer, while content with 
poor houses — unlike the Normans and French, who 
lived frugally in fine mansions — and as indulging in 
coarse gluttony and drunkenness, vices which they 
taught to their conquerors. They had however better 
amusements than mere revelry. They took great 
pleasure in poetry, singing, and harp-playing ; and 
professional " gleemen," who combined the characters 
of juggler, tumbler, and minstrel, wandered from 
house to house. There were also outdoor sports — 
wrestling, leaping, racing, and hunting with net, 
hound, or hawk. Nor were the English, at the time 
of the Norman Conquest, an uncultivated people. 
They had books of medicine, natural science, grammar 
and geography, in their own language. They were 
skilful in goldsmith's work, in embroidery, in illumina- 
tion of manuscripts, as well as in the crafts of the 
weaver and the armourer. 

2. The Ordeal. — The ordeal was a method of 
ascertaining the guilt or innocence of an accused 
person by a supposed appeal to the judgment of 
Heaven. After certain religious rites, the accused 
plunged his hand into boiling water, or carried a hot 
iron for three paces. If in three days the scald or 
burn had healed, he was cleared ; if noi, he was held 
guilty. A man of ill reputation was obliged to undergo 



42 THE OLD- ENGLISH AND NORMANS, [chap. 

a threefold ordeal — thit is, the weight of the iron was 
increased threefold, or he had to plunge his arm up 
to the elbow in the water— wher j a single ordeal would 
suffice for persons of credit. The Normans introduced 
in addition the ^ria/ by battle^ which was an appeal to 
Heaven by means of a duel between accuser and 
accused. 

3. The Slave-trad^. -The crying sin of England, 
even in the estimation of that age, was the slave-trade. 
Although the export of Christian slaves was forbidden 
by law, nothing could check it. The town of Bristol 
was the chief seat of this slave-trade, and strings of 
young men and women were shipped off regularly 
from that port to Ireland, where they found a ready 
market. King William was as zealous against this 
traffic as his predecessors, and with no better success. 
What the law failed to do, St. Wulfstan^ Bishop ol 
Worcester, effected, at least for a season. He visited 
Bristol repeatedly, and preached every Sunday against 
the trade until he had prevailed on the burghers to 
abandon it. Later on, in 1102, St. Anselm^ Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, held a synod at Westminster, 
in which a decree was put forth forbidding all traffic 
in slaves — "that wicked trade by which men in 
England were still wont to be sold like brute beasts." 

4. London. — At the time of the Norman Conquest, 
Lofidon^ so advantageously placed upon the Thames, 
was already the chief city in England, and fast dis- 
placing the old West-Saxon capital of Wifichester. 
But the London of those days was surrounded by 
wood and water and waste land where the deer and 
wild boar roamed. The names of Moorfields and 
Moorgate still mark the place where once was a dreary 
moor or fen. Westminster Abbey was built upon 
a thicket-grown island or peninsula, inclosed by river 
and streams and marshes, and called Thorn-ey^ that is, 
the Isle of Thorns. By the Abbey was the Palace, 
where the Confessor in his later years chiefly dwelled. 



VIII.] LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 43 

that he might watch the building of his Minster. 
The name of Old Palace Yard marks where his 
dwelling-place was ; New Palace Yard being so called 
from the palace built by the Conqueror's son and 
successor William Rufus. 

5. Language. — The EngHsh language has so 
changed in the course of centuries that in its most 
ancient form it seems like a foreign tongue to us. 
Besides the changes that all living and growing lan- 
guages undergo, there crept in a number of French 
words and idioms, which have made a great difference 
between modern English and the purely Teutonic lan- 
guage which is known as Old-English. The dialects 
which were spoken in different parts of the country 
fall into three great divisions, Northern, Midland, and 
Southern, distinctions which still linger in spoken 
English. What we call " Scotch " is in truth one form 
of Northumbrian English ; while the dialects of 
Somerset and Dorset preserve the remains of the 
Southern speech. Modern English — the language in 
which books are written and which educated people 
are taught to use — has grown out of the East-Midland 
dialect, the speech of the shires bordering on the 
Fenland. 

6. Literature. — Among the most ancient specimens 
of Old-English literature is the fine poem of the hero 
Bebivulf and his combats with the ogre Grendel and 
with a fiery dragon. This tale was composed before 
the English tribes had migrated from the Continent 
to Britain, and it is easy to see that it belongs to 
heathen times, though the text, as we have it, has 
been re-written in Northumberland, and has received 
some Christian touches. Our first Christian poet, 
Ccedmon. who sang of the creation of the world, the 
entry of Israel into Canaan, and the mysteries of the 
Christian faith, was believed by himself and his con- 
temporaries to have received his powers by the direct 
gift of Heaven He had never learned aught of 



44 THE OLD-ENGLISH AND NORMANS, [chap 

singing; — when sometimes at an entertainment it 
was determined that all the guests should sing in turn, 
Csedmon, on seeing the harp approach him, would 
leave in the middle of supper. On one occasion he 
had thus left the feast, and had lain down to sleep in 
the stable, the care of the beasts being committed to 
him that night. In a dream one stood by him and 
spoke : "Caedmon, sing me something." Repleaded 
ignorance ; but the command was repeated : '* Sing 
the beginning of created things." And forthwith he 
began to sing verses he had never heard before. In 
the morning he revealed his new powers, and was 
received by the famous Abbess St. Hild into her 
monastery at Whitby. This story is told by Bceda, 
called the Venei-able, a monk of farrow, who died in 
735. He was one of the most learned men of his age ; 
and from his chief work, " The Ecclesiastical History 
of the English People," written in Latin, we get great 
part of our knowledge of those times. Ealhwine or 
Alcuiii, born about the time of Baeda's death, and 
educated in the school of York, had so high a repu- 
tation as a scholar, that Charles the Great^ King of the 
Franks and Lombards, and afterwards Emperor o\ 
the Romans, invited him over to his court to lay 
the foundations of learning in his dominions. But the 
literature of Northumberland, which had already begun 
to fall off, almost wholly perished during the ravages 
of the Danes. Under King Alfred, learning and 
literature found a new home in Wessex. Whether he 
actually had a hand in the composition of the English 
or Anglo-Saxon Chi-otiicle is not certain, but it is 
thought that in his reign it began to be put together 
in its present shape, after which it was regularly 
continued. Of this Chronicle England may well be 
proud, for no other European nation has so ancient 
and trustworthy a history written in its own language. 
A fine song upon the battle of Brunanburh is inserted 
in the Chronxle, as if prose was insufficient to 



<riii.] THE NORMANS. 45 

express the national exultation. Other snatches cf 
song occur here and there in the Chronicle; and 
besides the poetry preserved to us, there appear to 
have been many popular ballads sung by the gleemen, 
from which some of the tales about our early Kings 
were derived. 

7. The Normans. — The Normans had become 
Christian and civiUzed without losing the vigour and 
adventurous spirit of their Scandinavian forefathers. 
In whatever they did, they were foremost ; and though 
in the arts of peace they were not inventors, they 
acquired, improved, and spread abroad all the 
learning, science, and art of the age. Above all, 
their valour and military skill were renowned through- 
out Europe. They brought new strength and life to 
the English race, and thus the country gained by the 
conquest in the end, and became more free and great. 
The middle-class English — the small thanes and the 
townsfolk — soon mixed with the foreign settlers, 
Norman and others; and, only a few years after the 
Conquest, French and English were already beginning 
to live together on good terms, and to intermarry, 
so that by the time of King Henry II , the great- 
grandson of the Conqueror, it was impossible, ex- 
cept in the highest and lowest ranks, to distinguish 
one race from the other. The peasantry were 
supposed to be purely Old-English, and the great 
men still were, or liked to be thought, of Norman 
blood. The Norman method of warfare differed 
from the English and Danish, which it displaced. 
The Norman and French gentlemen fought Oi. 
horseback armed with lance and sword, and would 
have thought it beneath their dignity to go into 
battle on foot. Of the common men a large number 
were archers ; and in course of time the EngHsh 
became more expert than any other nation in the 
use of the long-bow. The attire and weapons both 
of the conquering and the conquered race are well 



40 THE OLD-ENGLISH AND NORMANS, [chaf 

known to us from the famous, tapestry preserved al 
Bayeux, which represents in a series of pictures the 
history of the Norman Conquest. There have been 
many conjectures as to the origin of the tapestry, but 
the most probable one is that it was a gift from King 
William's half-brother Bishop Odo to his cathedra] 
church at Bayeux. 

8. Castle and Church Building. — One of the 
earliest French words introduced into our language 
was castU, the name and the thing being alike foreign 
Fortified towns and citadels were indeed familiar to 
Englishmen ; but private fortresses, such as were 
raised first by the Confessor's Norman favourites, 
greatly to the wrath of the English people, were 
something new, and these were called castles. To 
possess one was the wish of every Norman noble ; for 
when once his donjon, keep, or tower was built, he 
was king of the country round, and, until regular siege 
was laid to it, might laugh at the law. But though a 
strong, it was a dark and dreary dwelling. A splendid 
specimen of the donjon on its grandest scale is the 
White Tower of London, built for King William by 
Gundulf, Bishop of Rochester. William raised many 
castles of his own, to overawe rather than to defend 
the towns beneath them, though he wisely did not 
allow private ones to be built without royal licence. 
The eleventh century was a great time for church- 
building, and the Normans in England carried on the 
work vigorously, almost all the bishops rebuilding 
their cathedral churches. St. Paul's having been 
destroyed or damaged by fire, Maurice, Bishop of 
London, began a mighty pile to replace it. His suc- 
cessors continued it, and it became the largest church 
'n England. The style of the age, Romaiiesque, as it 
,t called, was greatly improved by the Normans, and 
the new form they gave it is commonly spoken of as 
the Norman f^tyle of architecture. Its characteristic 
points are the round arch, massive pier, and narrow 



VTTi.] FEUDAL TENURES. 47 

window. Durham Cathedral, begun in the reign of 
Rufusby Bishop William of St. Carilef SiX^d continued 
by his successor Ramilf Flambard, is a fine specimen 
of Norman Romanesque. 

9. Feudal Tenures. — Therehad grown up abroad 
a system of land-tenure, law, and government, which 
is known d,^ feudalism ; and after the coming in of the 
^ox\xvaxi% feudal ideas and practices obtained much 
more dominion in England, which had hitherto not 
been affected by them to any great extent. When a 
lord granted land to his mail or vassal on condition of 
fidelity and service in war, the vassal was said to hold 
by a feudal te?iure, the land so held being called a 
feudum, fief, or fee. (See Freeman's Gejieral 
Sketch of History.) The vassal, when his fiet was 
conferred, swore fealty (fidelity), and did homage. 
In the most complete form of homage, as it was 
performed in England, the vassal, bare-headed, with 
belt ungirt, knelt before his lord, between whose 
hands he placed his own, and promised thencefor- 
ward to become " his man of life and limb and earthly 
honour," and to be faithful and loyal to him. The 
most marked feature of feudahsm in England was the 
tenure by knight-sennce. The knight, in French 
chevalier, answered pretty nearly to the thane of earlier 
days j he held an estate of a certain yearly value, and 
his duty was, when called upon by the King or by his 
lord, to serve in war, on horseback and fully equipped, 
for forty days in the year. Every great landowner was 
bound, according to the amount of land that he held, 
to bring so many of these mounted followers into the 
field. Not laymen alone, but also bishops and clerical 
and monastic bodies, held lands by military service, 
and furnished their quota of warriors to the King's 
forces ; though by the law of the Church ecclesiastics 
might not serve in person, a restriction which they did 
not always observe. Although landowners holding 
by knight-service were for some purposes classed as 



48 THE OLD-ENGLISH AND NORMANS, [chap 

knights, in strictness a knight, at least from the twelfth 
century onwards, should have been "dubbed 
knight," the ceremony which marked him as a 
warrior. This dignity of knighthood was often be- 
stowed on a valiant man who had no qualification 
in land, and men even of royal blood were proud to 
receive it. Hence " knightly " and " chivalrous " 
became equivalent to the modern terms of " soldier- 
like " and "gentlemanlike." The great barons, or 
military tenants of the Crown, having little armies of 
trained knights under them, were formidable person- 
ages when they chose to be rebellious. William and 
his successors however took all possible care that the 
King should not, as in France, be overshadowed by 
his own great vassals. The King was sovereig?i or 
supreme lord, of whom all land was supposed to be 
held in the first instance ; and the danger of his 
sovereignty becoming a mere name, as was the case in 
some countries, in consequence of its being thought 
that the under vassals owed duty only to their im- 
mediate lords, and not to the King also, was avoided 
by the passing of a law in a Meeting held at Salisbury 
in 1086, obliging all freemen to swear allegiance to 
WilHam. Thus no man could think himself justified 
in following his own lord in rebellion against the King, 
the sovereign lord of all. The barons however.strove 
hard to cripple the royal power, until the nobib'ty of 
the Conquest had nearly died out, and new nobles 
were raised up, first by the Conqueror's son King 
Henry /., and after him by Hefiry II. In the following 
history we shall find the people at first siding with the 
Crown, and afterwards with the barons. Harsh as 
the foreign Kings were, they kept down the worse 
tyranny of their nobles ; but when the Crown had 
triumphed, and a new and better class of nobles had 
arisen, it became the barons' turn to restrain the royal 
despotism. The Kings early discovered that theii 
feudal rights could be used as means 01" wringing 



vni.] GOVERNMENT. 49 

money from their vassals, who in their turn treated 
their tenants as the King treated themselves ; and 
even after feudalism as a military system had fallen 
into decay, and the main ground for its existence had 
thus disappeared, its grievances remained, until the 
abolition in the seventeenth century of the tenures by 
knight-service. To the poorer freemen or churls^ 
feudalism was disadvantageous. Even before the 
Norman Conquest, this class had been falling under the 
authority of the great landowners. Though it was more 
dignified to be a free landowner, it was often safer 
to be a dependent, paying rent to, or doing work 
for, some strong and warlike lord, who would defend 
the churl's rights, and be answerable for the military 
service due from his land. In feudal times the churl 
became a villaiii (from the Latin znilanus, husband- 
man), a serf bound to the soil he tilled, and unable to 
change his abode — a condition above actual slavery, 
though below freedom. The villains were in fact 
labourers whose wages were paid, not in money, but 
in the shape of a small holding, perhaps only a 
cottage and patch of ground, and for two centuries 
after the Conquest their position was not hard, though 
by degrees it grew worse. They were a rough and 
ignorant class, but not badly off, according to the 
ideas of the time, and exempt from the dangers of 
a warlike life. In feudal times the slaves became 
hardly distinguishable from villains, and what was a 
fall for the free churl was a rise for the slave. Thus 
slavery gradually died out, as in the course of ages did 
villainage likewise. 

10. Government. — The Norman Conquest 
brought about considerable changes in the govern- 
ment. The Witena-gembt became the Great Council ^ 
the King's court of feudal vassals, which perhaps was 
sometimes an assembly of all landowners, but usually 
only of bishops, abbots, earls, barons, and knights. 
The chief minister of the Norman Kings, from the 



50 THE OLD-ENGLISH AND NORMANS, [chap. 

reign of Rufus, bore the title of Justiciar, The 
Chancellor was of somewhat earlier origin, as he 
appears in the reign of the Confessor. He was usually 
an ecclesiastic, the chief of the royal chaplains, and 
with them kept the royal accounts, drew up and sealed 
writs, and wrote the King's letters. The system of 
government by Earls was gradually given up. At 
first, more or less of the authority of an ancient earl 
or ealdorman seems still to have been conferred with 
the title ; but in course of time it became, as now, 
merely an hereditary titular dignity. The final stroke 
was put to a change which had been coming about for 
some generations. The folkland^ or public land, as 
much as was left of it, became Crown land, which the 
Sovereign could grant away at his pleasure. This 
right was greatly abused until, many centuries later, 
Parliament interfered to limit it. As the royal domain 
has since been under the control of Parliament it has 
in fact gone back to the condition of folkland. 

II. The Towns. — It has been sarcastically re- 
marked that, though we are fond of boasting that the 
liberties of England were bought with the blood oi 
our forefathers, it would be more generally accurate 
to say that they were purchased with money. This is 
peculiarly true in the case of the towns. At the time 
of the Norman Conquest we find the inhabitants of 
towns living under the protection of the King or other 
lord, to whom they paid rents and dues. The first 
steps towards an administration and organization of 
their own were taken in order to free themselves from 
the exactions of the sheriff, who collected the sum 
due to the King from the shire. As whatever he 
could collect above that sum was his own profit, he 
was under temptation to exact from the rich burghers 
more than was legally due ; and they therefore made 
it a point to have a valuation of their town fixed. 
The next step was to take the collection of this 
sum out of the sheriff's hands, which was done by 



VIII.] IHE TOWNS. 51 

obtaining from the Crown a charter letting the town 
to the burghers at a certain rent. By degrees 
they gained, usually by purchase, further privileges 
and more complete independence. They were still 
however liable to taxes, called tallages, at the plea- 
sure of the King. Henry I. granted a charter to the 
citizens of London, by which he gave them large 
privileges. He permitted them to appoint their own 
sheriff, to have their ancient hunting-grounds, — a 
mighty favour from one of the Norman Kings, who 
were loth to let anyone hunt but themselves ; and he 
freed them from the obligation to accept the trial by 
battle. To YJmgJohfi^ the son of Henry II., London 
owed the privilege of choosing its own Mayor, an 
officer who, with his French title, first appears early 
in the reign of John's brother and predecessor on the 
throne, Richaj'd I. The example set by the Kings 
in their cities and boroughs was followed by the great 
lords who held boroughs, to which they granted 
similar privileges. Trade gilds in like manner bought 
charters. These gilds or sworn brotherhoods were 
very old institutions in England, and in their earliest 
form were associations for religious purposes, for 
mutual defence against injury, or for mutual relief in 
poverty. Of the craft-gilds or associations of free 
handicraftsmen, the most ancient were those of the 
weavers. Henry I. chartered the weavers of Oxford, 
and also those of London, who paid him in return 
eighteen marks yearly. By this London charter the 
right of exercising the craft within the City, Southwark, 
or other places belonging to London, was confined 
to members of the gild. The craft-gilds were in fact 
a kind of trade-unions, though composed of masters ; 
but these masters were but small people, for in those 
days there were no great employers of labour such as 
there are now, and therefore no large class of hired 
workmen. The merchant-gilds or gilds of traders by 
degrees grew into the governing bodies of their towns 



52 WILLIAM L ,CHAP 

CHAPTER IX. 

WILLIAM I. 

\'Villia7n the Conqueror (i) — the confiscations (2) — com- 
pletion of the Normati Conquests harrying of the 
North; defence of the Isle of Ely ; the ^thelitig 
Edgar; beheading of Waltheof (3) — Lanfranc : 
William^s government ; Domesday ; the New Forest 
(4) — imprisonment of Odo : death of William ; Battle 
Abbey (5). 

1. The Norman Kings. William I., sur- 
named the Great and the Conqueror, 1066- 
1087. — The Norman King was a hard and strong- 
willed man, who never shrank from oppression or 
cruelty when they would serve his purpose, but who 
scarcely ever committed a merely wanton crime. He 
was ambitious of power, but he at any rate meant to 
use it well, and he had been a good ruler in his own 
land of Normandy. He was strong in body as in 
mind ; no hand but his could bend his bow, and, 
although in later life he became excessively fat, he 
was always majestic in bearing. His wife, Queen 
Matilda, for whom he had a constant affection, was 
the daughter of Baldwin, Count of Flanders. 

2. The Confiscations. — William, looking upon 
Harold as a mere usurper, claimed to be the lawful 
successor of the Confessor, and was careful to act in 
strictly legal form. According to his view, all English- 
men had been traitors, for they had either tried to 
keep him out, or at least not helped to bring him in ; 
and as traitors, all their estates might be confiscated, 
that is, taken possession of by the State. He at once 
confiscated a great deal, out of which he made grants 
to his followers j and every fresh disturbance 01 



.X.J CUMTLETION OF THE NORMAN CONQUEST, 53 

rebellion was made a ground for confiscating more 
The result was that the country got a set of foreign 
nobles, and that many Englishmen lost all, or nearly 
all, that they had, or became tenants under Norman 
lords ; but every one, French or English, held his lands 
solely from the King's grace. 

3. Completion of the Norman Conquest. — 
After an absence of less than six months, William went 
over to Normandy, to show himself in his new dignity. 
Yet in truth his conquest was only begun ; and he had 
the West and the North still to win. That part ol 
the country which was in his grasp he left under 
the rule of his half-brother Odo of Bayeux, and of 
his trusty friend William Fttz-Osbern, making the 
former Earl of Kent 2iT\d the latter Earl of Hereford. 
These treated the English so oppressively that the 
King on his return found matters in a troublous state. 
Still he kept his hold on the south-eastern shires, and 
when he marched to conquer the West-country, English 
levies formed part of his army. It took him about 
three years and a half to get full possession of the 
land ; for there was still spirit among the people. But 
a revolt here and a revolt there, with no common 
plan or leader, were useless against so good a soldier. 
The most formidable rising was in 1069, when the 
King of the Danes, Swegen Estrithson^ sent a fleet 
to the help of the English in the North, who were 
joined by the ^theling Edgar. York, where the 
Normans had built two castles to command the Ouse, 
was the first point of attack. There the stalwart Earl 
Waltheof, so the story goes, took his stand by a gate \ 
and as the Normans pressed forth one by one, their 
heads were swept off by his unerring axe. William 
took a savage method of crushing the North-country 
into obedience. At the head of his troops he marched 
through the length and breadth of the land between 
York and Durham, and deliberately made it a desert 
For nine years the ground remained waste, no man 



54 WILLIAM L [CHAP 

thinking it worth while to till it ; and even a genera 
tion later ruined towns and uncultivated rields still 
bore witness to the cruelty of the Conqueror. The 
hitherto unconquered country between the Tyne and 
the Tees was harried in like manner, as also Cheshire 
and the neighbouring shires, the city of Chester being 
William's last conquest. More than 100,000 people, 
then no small part of the population, are said to have 
died of hunger and cold that winter. William was now 
master of the land, although a band of outlaws and 
insurgents, chief among them one Herewardy still held 
together in the Isle of Ely. In those days the rising 
ground of Ely was really almost an island, surrounded 
by streams and deep fens. When, after a brave 
defence, chis last stronghold surrendered to William, 
Hereward; with a small band of comrades, escaped by 
water, and legend goes on to tell how he led an 
outlaw's life in the woods, and was the terror of the 
foreigners, until he made his peace with the King. 
One story says that he was nevertheless treacherously 
cut to pieces by a party of Normans. " Had there 
been three more men in the land like nim, the French 
would never have entered it," is said to have been the 
remark of one of his slayers. Of the other English 
leaders, Edgar, after finding shelter for some time with 
his brother-in-law King Malcolm III. of Scotland, made 
his peace and settled down in Normandy; and Mor- 
car, who had been among the defenders of Ely, dragged 
out his life in captivity. Waltheof was taken for a time 
'nto high favour, being made Earl of Northumber- 
land ; but afterwards getting entangled in a conspiracy 
against William, he was sentenced to death. At early 
morn, May 31st, 1076, he was led outside Winchester 
to die. The headsmen grew impatient at the length 
of his prayers. " Let me at least say the Lord's 
Prayer for me and for you," pleaded the Earl ; but 
ere he had finished, the executioner struck off his 
head as he knelt. The by standers fancied that they 



i^i.] WILLIAM'S GOVERNMENT. SB 

heard the severed head complete the prayer ; and 
by his countrymen Waltheof was honoured aB a 
martyr. 

4. William's Government. — William placed in 
the Archbishopric of Canterbury Lanfranc^ a. Lombard 
by birth, who was held to be the most learned man in 
Europe. Under the new Primate the Church of Eng- 
land was brought into closer connexion with thai of 
Rome, and the bishoprics were gradually filled up 
with foreigners. The Norman King tried, though with 
small success, to learn English, and his rule was 
in some points good ; but in later years he grew 
avaricious and grasping, shutting his eyes to any 
oppression by his officers if it brought him in money. 
In 1085, after consulting with the Witan, he decreed 
the making of £>omesday— the great Survey of the 
country, in which every estate, as far north as the 
Tees, was entered, with its values at the time and in 
that of Edward. This work, so useful to the historian, 
was then looked on with distrust and indignation, as 
a step towards further taxation. Not a yard of land, 
not so much as an ox, or a cow, or a pig, was left 
unrecorded, so the Chronicler complains. William 
delighted in hunting, and his cruel law, which con- 
demned the deerslayer to lose his eyes, was another 
grievance. The JVew Forest in Hampshire was made 
by him, and stories are told of his destroying houses 
and churches which stood in his way. Long after 
his time, the forests, which were constantly being 
increased, continued to be a cause of bitterness, on 
account of the severe laws for the protection of the 
game. To understand how a forest could be made, 
it must be explained that a forest was not merely a 
wood^ but rather any uncultivated ground. 

5. Death of William. — In his later years William 
was troubled by the rebellion of his eldest son Robert^ 
who had been aggrieved by his father's refusal to make 
over to him the Duchy of Normandy Odo of Bayeux 



56 WILLIAM I. [CHAP 

also gave cause of displeasure. Having taken up a 
notion of getting himself made Pope, he was gathering 
a band of Normans for an expedition into Italy, when 
the King cut short his schemes by ordering his arrest. 
As those present had scruples about laying violent 
hands on a Bishop, William himself arrested his 
brother. Instructed by Lanfranc, the King was ready 
with his justification :— " I do not seize the Bishop of 
Bayeux, but the Earl of Kent." And accordingly the 
Earl-Bishop was kept in ward until the King on his 
deathbed set him free. In 1087 William was laying 
waste the borderland between France and Normandy 
in revenge for a stupid jest which the French King 
had made upon his unwieldy figure. While riding 
through the burning town of Mantes, and urging his 
men to add fresh fuel to the flames, his horse, treading 
on the hot embers, made a bound forward, and William, 
being pitched against the pommel of the saddle, 
received an internal injury, of which he lingered 
many weeks. On his deathbed he expressed a tardy 
penitence for his unjust conquest of England, and 
above all for the harrying of the North. What he 
had won by wrong, he said, he had no right to give 
away, so he would only declare his wish that he might 
be succeeded in England by his second son William^ 
who had ever been dutiful to him. Robert, who was 
still at enmity with his father, was to have Normandy, 
together with the adjoining province of Maine^ which 
William had conquered. The King died at Rouen in 
Normandy, Sept. 9th, and was buried at Caen. Battle 
Abbey, near Hastings, was built by hira upon tlie spot 
Adhere Harold's standard had stood 



X.J WILLIAM IL 57 

CHAPTER X. 

WILLIAM IL 

Election of Willia7n; rebellion of Odoj character oj 
William; Raniilf Flambard ; the Royal followers {\) 
— Norman affairs; Scottish affairs (2) — Flambard'i 
financial expedietits ; Ansehn made Prijuate (3) — the 
First C7-usade ; Normandy mortgaged (4) — death oJ 
William (5) — building of Westminster Hall (6). 

I. William II., surnamed Rufus, or the 
Red King, 1087-1100. — The Conqueror's wish was 
fulfilled, his son William being elected and crowned 
King, Sept. 26th. But Odo of Bayeux worked upon 
the barons, pointing out how much better it would 
suit them to be governed by the easy-tempered 
Robert than by the fierce and masterful William ; and 
almost all the great Norman nobles joined in an 
attempt to transfer the crown to Duke Robert. 
William thereupon made an appeal to the English, 
promising them the best laws they ever had, liberty 
of hunting on their own lands, and freedom from un- 
just taxes The English answered with hearty support, 
and soon quelled the rebellion ; but their loyalty was 
ill requited. " Who is there who can fulfil all that he 
promises ? '^ was William's angry reply when Lanfranc 
reminded him that he had sworn to rule with justice 
and mercy. In 1089 Lanfranc died, and with him 
all hope of good government. Rufus, or the Red 
King, as he was called from his ruddy complexion, 
inherited his father's Valour, but no other of his virtues. 
He gave himself up to gross vice, was irreligious and 
Dlaspherhous in speech, and surrounded himself with 
wicked and foolish companions, who caused scandal 
equally by their sins and their follies. His promise 



51 WILLIAM II. [CHAP. 

to impose no unjust taxes was early broken ; for being 
utterly reckless how he spent his money, he was soon 
in need. As an instance of his tasteless extravagance 
we are told that one morning when putting on a paii 
of new boots, he asked his chamberlain what they had 
cost? " Three shillings." Rufus flew into a rage :— 
" How long has the King worn boots at so paltry a 
price ? Go and bring me a pair worth a mark of 
silver." The chamberlain returned with a pair in 
reality cheaper than those rejected, and told him 
they had cost the price he had named. " Ay," said 
Rufus, " these are suitable to royal majesty." After 
this the chamberlain was sharp enough to charge the 
King what he pleased for his clothes. The King's 
chief adviser was Ranulf, a Norman priest, who went 
by the nickname of " Flatubard^' or the Torch, and 
whom he afterwards made Bishop of Durham. This 
minister's ingenuity was employed in laying on grind- 
ing taxes, and otherwise raising money ; the halter, it 
was said, was loosed from the robber's neck if he could 
promise any gain to the Sovereign. Wherever the 
King and the court went, they did as much damage 
as an invading army ; for the royal followers lived at 
free quarters on the country people, and often repaid 
their hosts by wasting or selling everything they 
could lay their hands on, and, in wanton insolence, 
washing their horses' legs with the liquor they did 
not drink. 

2. Norman and Scottish affairs. — In 1091 
the King attacked Robert in his Duchy, and con- 
strained him to surrender part of his dominions. 
Having thus come to an agreement, the two joined 
together to dispossess their third brother Henry, whom 
they drove from his stronghold of Mount St. Michael 
in Normandy. The King then returned to deal with 
an invasion of th i Scots ; and made a peace with theii 
King, Malcolm, who renewed to Rufus the homage he 
had already paid to the Conqueror. Malcolm's next 



X.] ARCHBISHOP ANSELM. S9 

invasion in 1093 cost him his life, he being killed 
before Alnwick. In the previous year William had 
enlarged the English Kingdom by the addition of the 
northern part of modern Cumberland, with its capital, 
Carlisle. This district, when Rufus marched into it, 
was a separate principality, ruled by an English noble 
named Doljin, who was probably a vassal of the Scot- 
tish King. Having driven out Dolfin, William restored 
Carlisle, which had never recovered its destruction by 
the Danes in Alfred's time, built a castle there, and 
colonized the wild surrounding country with Flemings 
and English peasants from the South. Cumberland 
became an English Earldom, and in the next reign 
Carlisle was made the seat of a bishopric. 

3. Archbishop Anselm. — Flambard's great 
device for raising money was that the King should 
take possession of all vacant bishoprics and abbeys, 
and farm out their lands and revenues to the highest 
bidder. If he at last named a new bishop or abbot, 
it was understood that the honour was to be paid for, 
Thus the See of Canterbury had never been filled since 
Lanfranc's death. But in Lent, 1093, the King falling 
grievously sick, and being pricked in conscience, in 
his terror promised good government, and named to 
the Archbishopric Anselm, an Italian by birth, and 
Abbot of Bee in Normandy. Anselm, a man of 
great learning and holiness, who was afterwards 
canonized as Saint, was unwilling, and with good 
reason, to receive the dangerous honour ; for no 
sooner had William got well than he fell back into 
worse ways than ever. Anselm had Hkened himself 
to a feeble old sheep yoked to the plough with an 
untamed bull ; and in truth he and the King agreed 
as ill as he had foretold. But feeble as Anselm 
called himself, no man was more outspoken in rebuk- 
ing wrong, or firmer in upholding what he thought to 
be right. At last, after many quarrels, the Archbishop 
withdrew to Rome. 



6o WILLIAM IL [CHAP 

4 Normandy mortgaged.— Meanwhile Nor 
mandy, which the King had again striven to win by 
force, came quietly within his grasp. From early ages 
it had been the practice of Christians to make pil 
grimages to the Holy Land, to pray at the Sepulchre 
of Christ j and about this time a flame of indigna- 
tion was raised throughout Europe by tales of the 
wrongs done by the Turks to the native Christians of 
Palestine and to the pilgrims. At the call of the 
Pope, an armed expedition set out in 1096 to rescue the 
Holy Sepulchre from the Mohammedans ; and from all 
parts of Europe men flocked to the Crusade, so called 
because those who took part in it put a cross, in Latin 
criix^ upon their garments. Among those who were 
stirred by the prevailing enthusiasm was Robert of 
Normandy. To meet the expense of his undertaking, 
he mortgaged for 10,000 marks his Duchy to his 
brother, and set off joyously to Palestine, while 
William entered into full possession of Normandy. 

5. Death of William. — Rufus, hke his father, 
was passionately fond of the chase, and so far from 
continuing to allow the liberty of hunting accorded at 
the beginning of his reign, he at last made it death 
to take a stag. On the 2nd August, iioo, he was 
hunting in the New Forest. Some vague suspicion of 
intended foul play was probably afloat, for evil dreams 
had been dreamed by himself and others, and on this 
account he had been half persuaded not to hunt that 
day. But wine kindled his courage ; a letter from 
the Abbot of Gloucester, recounting a warning vision, 
was received with the scornful question, '* Does he 
think that I follow the fashion of the English, who 
will put off a journey for a sneeze or an old wife's 
dream ? " and forth he went into the Forest. Soon 
after, he was found lying pierced by the shaft of a 
crossbow, and in the agonies of death. Suspicion fell 
on one of the hunting-party, a French knight named 
Walter Tyi-ell, who fled for his life and got away to 



XI. J ilENRY I. 6l 

France. That he had accidentally shot the King 
became the common belief, but he always denied it ; 
and as no one ever owned to having seen Rufus 
struck, the matter remains in doubt. Some country- 
men carried the King's body in a cart to Winchester, 
where it was buried without any religious rite ; for it 
was thought unseemly to bestow such upon him who 
had been thus cut off in the midst of unrepented sins. 
6. Westminster. — IVestmimter Hall was first 
built by Rufus, whose love of architecture was one of 
his better tastes ; but it was afterwards cased over 
and otherwise altered in the time of Richard II. 



CHAPTER XL 

HENRY I. 

Henry /.; Charter of Liberties (i) — marriage with Edith 

Matilda ; invasion of Duke Robert ; Nor?nandy won 
by Henry (2) — dispute between Heti?y and A nselm (3) — 
Wales ; setilejnent of Fle?m7igs {Ji) — death 0/ the Queen j 
death of Williatn j second jnarriage of Henry j fealty 
sworn to Matilda (5) — death of Henry; his govern- 
ment (6). 

I. Henry I., surnamed the Clerk or Scholar, 

I loo-i 135. Charter of Liberties. — Hairy, youngest 
son of the Conqueror, was one of the hunting-party 
when Rufus fell. As soon as he heard of his brother's 
death, he galloped for Winchester, and there made 
himself master of the royal treasure. On the morrow 
the barons who were at hand went through the form of 
electing him to be King, and two days later he was 
crowned at Westminster, thus forestalling his brother 
Robert, wno was loitermg on his way home from the 
Crusade. To reconcile all to his accession, he put out 



62 HENRY 1. [CHAP 

a Charter of Liberties, in which he promised to the 
Church neither to sell nor farm benefices, nor take any 
profit to himself from vacant sees and abbeys \ and to 
his vassals the abolition of sundry arbitrary exactions 
and oppressive customs under which they had 
suffered in the last reign, bidding them make the same 
concessions to their own vassals. To the nation al 
large he promised the restoration of " the law of King 
Edward " — that is, the laws and customs that had 
prevailed in the time of the Confessor — with the 
amendments made by the Conqueror. 

2. Normandy won. — The evil companions of 
Rufus were removed from the court, and Archbishop 
Anselm was recalled. Further to win the people's 
hearts, Henry took to wife Edith^ daughter of Mai 
colm of Scotland, and, on the side of her mother 
Margaret, descended from the West-Saxon Kings. She 
assumed the Norman name of Matilda^ and was by 
the people surnamed " the Good." The nobles were 
for the most part unfriendly to the King, and, relying 
on their support, Duke Robert invaded England to 
push his claim to the crown. The English stood by 
Henry, and Anselm exerting all his influence ovei 
the nobles, the dispute between the brothere was made 
up without bloodshed. After this, the King set him- 
self to break the power of his barons, bringing various 
charges against the most disaffected and lawless, an J 
punishing them with heavy fines, confiscation of their 
lands, or banishment. One after another, the chief 
families founded by the Norman Conquest fell, and 
Henry raised up new men who owed their greatness 
to himself. The King's next object was to wresi 
Normandy from his brother ; and by a victory at 
Tinchebrai in iio6 he obtained possession both of the 
Duchy and of Robert, whom he kept a prisoner until 
his death in 1134. The i^theling Edgar, who having 
followed Robert, was among the captives, was allowei' 
to live unmolested in England. 



XI.] ARCHBISHOP ANSELM. 63 

3. Archbishop Anselm. — About this time a dis 
pute between Henry and Anselm was brought to an 
end. The English Kings claimed that bishops and 
abbots should be nominated by them, should become 
their vassals like the lay barons, and from their hands 
should receive the ring and staff which were the 
emblems of their spiritual authority. This was the 
investiture^ the legal form by which the new prelate was 
put in possession of the lands and revenues of his 
benefice. This right of investiture, which was claimed 
by princes throughout Western Christendom, led 
in the hands of unworthy rulers like Rufus to the 
sale of bishoprics and similar abuses, and it had for 
some time been contested by the Popes. Anselm 
therefore, though he had formerly felt no scruple about 
thus receiving his Archbishopric from Rufus, now, in 
obedience to the Church's decree, refused to do 
homage to Henry, or to consecrate the bishops invested 
by him. In the end both sides gave way somewhat, 
the Pope consenting that the prelates should do 
homage, and Henry giving up his claim to invest them 
with the ring and staff ; but that Henry should peace- 
ably yield anything was in itself a victory. The 
Church was at this time almost the only check upon 
the will of rulers ; but men soon began to complain 
of the power of the Pope, which Anselm had helped 
to strengthen, as in its turn an evil. Anselm died in 
1109. 

4. Wales. The Flemish Settlement.— The 
Conqueror had formed the northern frontier towards 
Wales into the Earldoms of Shrewsbury and Chester, 
and constant warfare went on between his Earls and 
their restless Welsh n eighbours. Roger of Montgomery, 
the Norman Earl of Shrewsbury, was the founder of 
a border castle, which, together with the town at its foot, 
bore his own surname, Montgomery. In the time of 
Rufus, the Normans made their way into southern 
Wales, establishing themselves *n castles and towns, 



64 HENRY 1. [chap 

while the Welsh princes went on reigning in the wildei 
parts of the land. Rufus and Henry secured the 
7fm?'c/ies or frontiers by building castles; and the latter 
also tried the effect of planting a colony of foreigners. 
He placed Flemish settlers, a people at once brave 
and industrious, in the south of Pembrokeshire, where 
they grew rich by tilling the ground and manufacturing 
cloth, and held their own against all the efforts of the 
Welsh princes to turn them out. 

5. Succession of Matilda. — Queen Matilda died 
in 1 1 18, leaving two children, — the ^theling William^ 
and Matilda, married to the Emperor Henry V. In 
1 1 20 William, a youth of seventeen, was crossing from 
Normandy to England in a vessel called the " White 
Ship." He was attended by a train of wild young 
nobles ; the crew had been freely supplied with wine ] 
and the priests who came to bless the voyage were 
dismissed with jeers and laughter. Driven by fifty 
rowers, the vessel put to sea; but striking on a sunken 
rock, it filled and went down, one man only being 
saved. William, it is said, had put off from the sink- 
ing ship in a boat, when the shrieks of his half-sister, 
the Countess of Perche, moved him to row back to 
the wreck, where his boat was swamped by the multi- 
tude of people who leaped in, and all were drowned. 
As the King's second marriage with Adeliza of Louvain 
proved childless, he determined to settle the crown on 
his lately-widowed daughter Matilda. The barons 
were loth to consent, for it was not then the custom 
for women to rule ; but they were obliged to yield, 
and all swore to accept Matilda as " Lady " over 
Fjigland and Normandy. Her father then, in 11 27, 
married her, little to her liking, to Geoffrey Plafitagenet, 
a- lad about fourteen, eldest son of the Count of Anjou, 
whom Henry hoped thus to turn from a dangerous 
neighbour into a friend. Thrice over were oaths of 
fealty sworn to Matilda, and on the last occasion, to 
her infant son Henry, who was bom in 1133. 



xn.] STEPHEN. 65 

6. Death ot Henry ; his Government. — Kin^ 
Henry, the only one of the Conqueror's sons who war. 
born in England, died in Normandy, Dec. 1st, 1135, 
in consequence, it is said, of eating lampreys. 
The reign of Henry was a time of misery ; his 
frequent wars caused England to be ground down 
under a burthensome taxation, while a succession of 
bad seasons added to the sufferings of the people. 
But they accounted Henry a good king, and stood 
loyally by him, recognizing him as their ally against 
the disorderly and oppressive barons ; and they saw 
in him " the Lion of Justice " spoken of in the cur- 
rent prophecies attributed to the Welsh soothsayer 
Merlin. He improved the administration of govern- 
ment and justice, sending judges through the country 
to assess the taxes, and try criminals ; he also granted 
charters to the towns. By severe punishment he put 
a stop to his followers' plundering, which had got to 
such a pitch that the people were wont to fly with 
their property to the woods as soon as they heard of 
their Sovereign's approach. Indeed his great merit 
was the rigorous justice he dealt out to thieves and 
robbers. Unfeeling and grasping as he was, he 
allowed no tyranny but his own ; and under him there 
was order, though not freedom. 



CHAPTER XII. 

STEPHEN. 

Confusion after Henry's death (i) — election of Stephen oj 
Blois (2) — Battle of the Standard (3) — disorderly state 
of the country ; war of Stephen and Matilda ; settle- 
ment of the succession; death of Stephen (4). 

I. Stephen of Blois, 1135-1154. Confusion 
after Henry's death. — As soon as Henry's iron 



66 STEPHEN. [chap. 

hand was removed, the order which he had enforced 
upon his subjects ceased. He had guarded the 
forests with jealous tyranny ; now every one broke into 
the deer-parks and hunted down the game, so that in 
a few days there was hardly a beast of chase left in the 
country. But with his tyranny his good government 
came also to an end; and robbery, lawless violence, 
and private feuds broke out unchecked. 

2. Election of Stephen. — Stephen of Blots, 
Coufit of Mortain and Boulogne, and son of Henry's 
sister Adela, came forward as a candidate for the 
crown, regardless of his oath to#his cousin the Empress, 
as Matilda was commonly called. His easy manners 
and readiness to laugh and talk with the common 
people had made him popular; the citizens of 
London hailed him with joy, and he was elected 
King, and crowned at Westminster. The barons, who 
disliked Matilda, and still more her husband, easily 
reconciled their consciences to the breach of their 
oaths ; and Stephen, having possessed himself of 
Henry's vast treasure, was able to buy support. He 
made large promises of good government which he 
did not keep, gave extravagant grants of Crown lands, 
and surrounded himself with foreign mercenaries 
— soldiers who hired themselves out to any prince 
who would pay them. 

3. Battle of the Standard. — David /., King of 
Scots, Matilda's uncle, taking up her cause, made 
mroads upon England, once getting as far as York- 
shire. The wild Scots spread over the country, 
burning, desecrating, enslaving, and slaughtering, 
until, exhorted by the aged Archbishop Thurstan, the 
Yorkshire barons and people mustered against the 
invaders. The knights came with their men-at-arms, 
the husbandmen with their sons and servants, the 
parish priests brought up the fighting men of their 
flocks. The armies met, Aug. 22nd, 1138, on Cowton 
MooTy near Northallerton, where the English were 



XII. J WAR OF STEPHEN AND MATILDA. 6? 

drawn up round their strange standard, a mast set on 
a waggon and crowned by a silver casket containing 
a consecrated wafei. Hence the ensuing combat, 
which ended in the utter rout of the Scots, was called 
" The Battle of the Sta7idard:' 

4. W^ar of Stephen and Matilda. — Mean- 
while Stephen, whose power of purchasing support 
was exhausted, could no longer control the barons. 
The clergy he set against him by rashly arresting the 
powerful Bishops of Salisbury and Lincoln, wliom 
by threats and hard usage he forced to surrender 
their castles, among them that of Devizes, built by 
Bishop Roger of Salisbury, and said to be one of the 
finest in Europe. The country was already in utter 
disorder. Robej-t of Cae?i, harl of Gloucester, the 
greatest man in England, had declared himself on the 
side of Matilda ; and his partisans in Bristol robbed 
and plundered, seizing on men of wealth and carrying 
them off, bhndfolded and gagged with sharp-toothed 
bits, to be starved and tortured for ransom. The 
highways were infested with thieves of gentle and 
peaceable appearance, who entered into courteous 
conversation with every one, until they could entrap 
some victim worth the seizing ; and at last things came 
to such a pass that a wayfarer would fly as soon as he 
espied another on the road. The barons had been 
sutfered unchecked to build themselves castles ; and 
secure in these, which they garrisoned with savage 
rufhans, they were the worst robbers. Neither man 
nor woman who had any property was safe from them; 
tliey made the towns pay them taxes, and when they 
could give no more, they plundered and burned them 
Even churches and churchyards were no longer re 
spected by them. The land lay waste, for it was useless 
to till it ; and matters kept growing worse and worse till 
men bitterly exclaimed that " Christ and His saints 
slept." This was the condition of England south of 
the Humber; it was better in the North, especially 



68 STEPHEN. [chap 

beyond the Tees, where the land had rest undu 
King David of Scotland, to whose son the Earldoms 
of Cumberland and Northumberland had been given 
by Stephen. The Empress landed in England in 
1 139, upon which civil war fairly broke out, and 
was carried on by both sides chiefly with mercenaries, 
while the barons fought and plundered on their own 
account. Early in 1141 Stephen, fighting till his 
sword and axe were broken, was taken prisoner at 
Lincoln, and sent to Bristol Castle ; while Matilda, 
acknowledged as Lady of the English^ entered London, 
where her imperious conduct so irritated the citizens 
that they soon drove lier out. In the autumn Stephen 
was exchanged against the Earl of Gloucester, and 
the war being renewed, he besieged the Empress in 
Oxford Castle. The garrison being straitened for food, 
Matilda shortly before Christmas, 1142, made her 
escape. The ground being covered with snow, she 
one night wrapped herself in a white cloak so as not 
to attract attention, and attended by three knights she 
passed through the posts uf the enemy, crossing the 
river on the ice, and reached Wallingford Castle in 
safety. Wearied out at last, in 1 147 she left England, 
and about the same time Earl Robert died. The war 
dragged on until in 11 53 the bishops brought about a 
peace, by which Stephen, who had recently lost his 
eldest son Eustace, was to keep the kingdom for his 
life, and was to be succeeded by Hettt-y, the eldest 
son of Matilda and Geoffrey. The next year, Oct 
25th, 1154, Stephen died. His wife, Matilda oj 
Boulogne^ who had valiantly supported him in his 
warfare; had died two years earlier. 











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HOUSE OF ANJOU. 
CHAPTER XIIL 

HENRY II. 



Henry of Anjou (i) — Thomas of London; Constitutions 

of Clare7ido7i; flighty return^ and murder of Thomas 
(2) — rebellion of Henry's sons ; Henry's penance; cap- 
ture of William the Lion {-^—further rebellions oj 
Henry's sons ; death of Henry ; his government; trial 
by jury (4) — conquest of Ireland; Strongbow and 
his comrades; Henry acknowledged by the native chief- 
tains; condition of the country 5). 

I. House of Anjou. Henry II., 1154-1189. 

— Even before he succeeded, at the age of twenty-one, 
to the English Crown, Heniy was a powerful prince. 
He was a vassal of the King of France, but had got 
so many fiefs into his hands that he was stronger than 
his lord and all the other great vassals of the French 
Crown put together. Anjou and Maine he had from 
his father, Normandy from his mother, and the County 
of Poitou and Duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony he 
had gained by marrying their heiress Eleanor a few 
weeks after her divorce from Louis VIL of France. 
Energetic, hard-headed, and strong-willed, he was 
well fitted for the task of bringing England into order ; 
and under the firm rule of a foreigner who had no 
national prejudices of his own, the distinction between 
Norman and Englishman faded away. He had been 
well educated, and took pleasure in the company of 
learned men; but his hterary refinement had not 
taught him to curb his fierce temper, and in his fits of 
passion he behaved like a madman, striking and tear- 
ing at whatever came within his reach. He was a 
stout and strongly-built man, with close-cut reddish 
hair and prominent grey eyes ; careless about dress, a 



TO HENRY IL [CHAP 

great hunter and hawker, and so active and restless 
that he hardly ever sat down except to meals. His 
private life was not creditable ; his marriage, on his 
side one of policy, was unhappy ; and the well-known 
tale of " Fair Rosamund," though a mere legend, pre- 
serves the name of one of his favourites, in spite 
of his faults, the country at once felt the benefit of 
his rule ; the foreign mercenaries were sent off; all 
castles built since the death of Henry I. were razed ; 
the barons were again brought under authority, and the 
Scots gave back the northern counties of England. 

2. The Constitutions of Clarendon. — In 1 162 
Henry procured the election of his intimate friend, 
the Chancellor Tho7?ias Becket, to the Archbishopric of 
Canterbury. Thomas was the son of a wealthy 
London citizen of Norman descent ; and though an 
ecclesiastic, he, like many of his class in that age, 
busied himself wholly in secular matters. At the 
head of a body of knights equipped and maintained 
by himself, he served in one of his master's foreign 
wars, and displayed his prowess by unhorsing a French 
knight. At another time he went on an embassy to 
Paris, and dazzled the French by the splendour of 
his retinue — all at his own cost, for he had a large 
mcome from various preferments and offices, and 
spent it magnificently. As soon however as Thomas 
became Archbishop, he gave up his former pomp, 
resigned the Chancellorship, and led an austere fife. 
Henry was offended, and the two were already at 
variance when they came to a downright quarrel on 
the subject of the Church courts. The Conqueror 
had maie the Bishops hold courts of their own for 
the trial of cases in which clerks or ecclesiastics were 
concerned. Not merely those in holy orders, but all 
who had received the to?isure — that is, had had their 
heads shorn in the manner which distinguished the 
clergy from the laity — and discharged the smallest 
offices in the Church, were sent before the eccle 



KHI.3 ARCHBISHOP THOMAS. 'Jt 

siastical courts, which by the law of the Church could 
noc inflict loss of life or limb ; and thus thieves and 
murdereis, if they could call themselves clergymen, 
got oif comparatively easily, when, if they had been 
tried as laymen, blinding or hanging would have been 
their lot. Henry wished to bring the clergy under the 
criminal jurisdiction of the ordinary courts, and this 
1 homas strongly opposed ; but the King to a great 
extent carried his point by means of "/y^^ Constitutiom 
')/ Clarendon,'' so called because they were drawh 
up and confirmed in a great council of prelates and 
barons, held in January 1 164 at the King's palace of 
Clare?idon in Wiltshire. Thomas at first gave his 
assent to the Constitutions, but soon drew back, 
saying he had sinned in accepting them. At this 
Henry grew more angry than ever, till at last the 
Archbishop, declaring that his life was in danger, 
appealed to the Pope and fled to foreign parts. The 
quarrel, kept up for six years, was embittered in 11 70 
by a dispute about the coronation of the King's 
eldest son, whom he designed for his viceroy in 
England. No one but the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
so Thomas maintained, had a right to crown the King ; 
but Henry nevertheless got Roger, Archbishop of 
York, to perform the ceremony. Through fear of the 
Pope's anger, and of King Louis VH. of France, who 
took up the exiled Archbishop's cause, Henry soon 
afterwards consented to a reconciliation, and Thomas 
returned amid the rejoicing of the people, who looked 
upon him as an oppressed man. But he remained 
fiini as ever, and despatched letters from the Pope, 
Alexander III., suspending the Archbishop of York 
from his office, and excommunicating two other 
Bishops. Henry flew into one of his fits of passion : 
•' What cowards have I brought up in my court ! " he 
exclaimed, *' not one will deliver me from this low- 
born priest ! " Four knights, taking him at his word, 
It once proceeded to Canterbury, and failing to frighten 



73 HENRY II. [CHAP. 

the Archbishop into submission, slew him on the pave- 
ment of his own cathedral church, in which he had 
taken refuge, Dec. 29th, 1170. Henry, horror-struck at 
this result, cleared himself with the Pope by making 
oath that he had had no complicity in the murder, 
and by renouncing the Constitutions of Clarendon. 

3. Henry's Penance.— Henry's life was clouded 
by quarrels with his sons, among whom he intended 
to divide his dominions at his death Besides Heiiry^ 
** the Younger Ki?ig,'^ who was to have England. 
Normandy, and Anjou, there was Richard, who had 
already received his mother's inheritance of Aquitaine 
and Poitou ; and Geoffrey^ for whom the King had 
obtained the succession to the Duchy of Britanny 
by betrothing him to its heiress Co7istance. There 
was 2i\so /ohrij to provide for whom the King wanted 
the other sons to give up some castles out of their 
promised shares of his dominions. Young Henry 
refused, and the King^s ill-wishers — Louis of France, 
and his own neglected wife Eleanor — stirred up the 
three elder youths to rebel against their father. Round 
the revolted sons there gathered in 1173 a strong 
league of discontented barons, English and foreign, 
aided by the Kings of France and Scotland. Think- 
ing that these calamities were caused by the Divine 
wrath for the murder of St. Thomas, as the late Arch- 
bishop was styled, Henry did penance and let himself 
be scourged before the Saint's tomb. Soon he learned 
that on or about the day on which, having completed 
his penance, he had left Canterbury, the King of 
Scots, William the Lion, had been captured at Alnwick, 
July, 1 1 74. By the King's own promptness and 
energy, and the fidelity of the people and of the new 
nobles whom he had raised up, the rebellion was 
soon brought to an end, and no one concerned met 
with hard usage except the King of Scots, who was 
constrained to enter into more complete and galling 
vassalage to England, even to admit English garrisons 



/ 



xm.J DEATH OF HENRY U. 73 

into the castles of the Lowlands. He was however 
by Henry's successor permitted to buy back the 
rights he had lost, England only retaining a vague 
claim to lordship over Scotland. 

4, Death of Henry ; his Government. — In 
1 183 Henry's two elder sons were again at war with 
him ; but that same year the Younger King, who was 
a mere tool of the discontented nobles, died, im- 
ploring his father's forgiveness. Geoffrey was par- 
doned, became again estranged, and died in 1186. 
Richard, after remaining faithful for some time, in 
1 1 88 sought the protection of Philip Augustus, King 
of France, and proceeded to invade his father's 
foreign dominions. Henry, whose health was failing, 
submitted, after a feeble resistance, to the demands of 
his enemies. He asked for a list of the barons who 
had joined Richard against him, and the first name he 
heard was that of his favourite son John. He turned 
his face to the wall — for he was lying down to rest — 
and groaned: — "Now," said he, "let all things go 
what way they may ; T care no more for myself nor 
for the world." Already stricken with fever, he sank 
under this cruel blow, ever and anon crying, " Shame, 
shame on a conquered King," and died at Chinon, 
July 6, 1 189. Historians often speak of him and 
the Kings of his Hne as the Platitagenets^ the sur- 
name borne by his father — probably because his device 
was a sprig oi planta genista or broom — and adopted 
in the fifteenth century by his descendants. Henry H. 
laid the foundations of good government in England, 
arranging the administration of justice, and taking 
pains to appoint faithful judges, who made circuits to 
assess the taxes, hear suits, and try criminals, as had 
been done before under Henry I. Trusting the 
people more than the barons, he re-organized the 
militia, and every freeman was bound to provide him- 
self with arms according to his position. In foreign 
warfare Henry usually employed soldiers hired with 



74 HENRY II. [CHAP 

the produce of taxes, called scutageSy levied on the 
feudal tenants in lieu of personal service. To Henry 
II. belongs the credit of having, not indeed created, 
but improved and extended the system out of which 
trial by jury grew. In cases of disputed possession 
of land, the possessor was allowed his choice between 
trial by battle, and the verdict of twelve knights of 
the neighbourhood, who had to declare on oath which 
of the litigants had the right to the land. These 
jurors were witnesses rather than judges; they swore 
to facts within their own knowledge ; but in later days 
they gradually became, as now, judges of the fact, 
giving their verdict only after hearing evidence. The 
system was extended to criminal matters ; a jury was 
employed to present reputed criminals to undergo the 
ordeal — the origin of omx grand juries. After a while 
a petty jury was allowed to disprove the truth of the 
presentment ; and upon the abolition of ordeal in the 
thirteenth century, that expedient came into general 
use. 

5. Conquest of Ireland. — Early in his reign 
Henry had obtained authority to invade Ireland 
from Pope Hadrian IV., or Nicholas Brakespere, 
noted as the only Englishman who has ever filled 
the Papal See. Nothing was done till 1169, when 
Diarmaid of Leinster, a fugitive Irish King, had 
obtained Henry's permission to enlist adventurers in 
his service. A ruined nobleman, Richard of Clare^ 
Earl of Pembroke, surnamed " Strongbow^' and two 
Norman gentlemen from Wales, Robert Fitz-Stephen 
and Maurice Fitz-Gerald, accepted Diarmaid s offers, 
and, raising an army, at first carried everything before 
them in Ireland. On Diarmaid's death, Strongbow, 
who had married his daughter Eva, assumed the 
^oyal authority in Leinster; but finding that he was 
not strong enough to make a lasting conquest, and 
that Henry grew jealous, he thought it best to agree 
to give up Dublin and the other fortified places of 



XIV.] RICHARD L 75 

Leinster to him, and hold his Irish lands as a vassal 
of the English Crown. Henry himself went over to 
Ireland in 1171 ; his sovereignty was generally ac 
knowledged ; and four years later a treaty was made 
by which Roderick, King of Cormaught, the head King 
of Ireland, became his liegeman ; but he could not 
keep any hold upon the country. Ireland, though 
supposed to be under English rule, remained for cen- 
turies in u^ter disorder, the battle-ground of Irish chiefs 
and Norman-English lords, who became as savage 
and lawless as those whom they had conquered. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

RICHARD L 

Richard Cceur de Lion; the Crusade (i) — deposition of 

Williajn Longchamp; treachery of John (2) — Richard 
taken by Leopold of Austria ; transferred to the Em- 
peror ; ransojned (3) — death of Richard; Bertrand de 
Gurdon {^—legendary reputation of Richard (5). 

I. Richard I., surnamed Cceur de Lion, or 
Lion-Heart, 1 189- 1 199. — Richard, though born in 
England, had been educated to be Duke of Aquitairie, 
and it is doubtful whether he could speak a sentence 
in English, Havmg spent his youth in Southern 
Gaul, then the school of music and poetry, he had 
acquired its tastes, and had some skill in composing 
verses in its language. But his passion was for 
military glory, which his strength, valour, and talents 
well fitted him to win. He was a tall stout man, 
ruddy and brown-haired, and given to splendour and 
show in dress. Fierce and passionate, he yet was 
not without generous imj ulses ; and after the fashion 



76 RICHARD L [chap. 

of a Crusader, he was zealous for religion. For the 

English he cared little, except as they supplied him 
with money, and during his whole reign he was only 
twice in the country, for a few months at a time. 
After his coronation, Richard at once made ready for 
a Crusade in company with his friend PhiHp Augustus 
of France. About two years before his accession, 
Jerusalem, where the first Crusaders had founded a 
Christian kingdom, had been taken by Sala^in, Sultan 
of Egypt and Syria, and the princes of Western 
Christendom for a moment laid aside their quarrel?, 
to go to its rescue. To raise money Richard sold 
honours, offices, Church lands, and to the King of 
Scots, release from all that Henry II. had imposed 
upon him : — ** I would sell London if I could find a 
buyer," he said. At Midsummer 1190, Richard and 
Philip set out together for the Holy Land ; but before 
they got there, their friendship had cooled. Jealousies 
and quarrels ruined the Crusade ; Philip soon went 
home to lay plans for possessing himself of Richard's 
continental dominions ; the other crusading princes 
were disgusted with Richard's arrogance, and he with 
their lack of zeal. After many brilliant exploits, the 
King, weakened by fever, and knowing that his 
presence was needed at home, ended by making a 
truce with Saladin. His ill success had been great 
grief to him. The Crusaders had not ventured to 
attack Jerusalem, the object of their enterprise ; and 
when — so ran a tale long repeated among the warriors 
of the Cross — Richard had come within sight of it, 
he had covered his eyes with his garment, praying 
God with tears not to let him look upon the Holy 
City, since he could not deliver it. Yet the Crusade 
had checked the progress of the great Saladin, and 
thus was not an utter failure. 

2. Deposition of the Chancellor Long- 
champ. — During this reign, England was really ruled 
by the King's Justiciars. Of these, the Chancelloi 



^o^-.J CAPTIVITY OF RICHARD. 77 

William of Longchamp, Bishop of Ely ^ though a faithful 
servant to Richard, was disliked by the nobles, and 
filled with contempt for the English, whose language 
he would not or could not speak — for, upstart as the 
nobles called him, he prided himself upon his Norman 
blood. He was before long removed from the Justiciar- 
ship by a meeting of earls, barons, and London citizens ; 
Walter of Coutances, Archbishop of Roiien, was ap- 
pointed in his stead, and the King's brother John, who 
had put himself at the head of the movement against 
the Chancellor, was declared Regent and heir to the 
Crown. But the new Justiciar and the Queen-iTiother 
Eleanor, with good reason mistrusting John, prevented 
him from getting any real power ; and in his vexa- 
tion John began to give ear to the plots of Philip of 
France against the absent Richard, who set out for 
home in October, 11 92. The next news of him was 
that he was a prisoner in Austria, and John, declaring 
that he was dead, laid claim to the crown. 

3. Captivity of Richard. — The King, in his 
hurry to get home, had left his fleet, and gone on as 
a private traveller. Having been wrecked on the 
coast of the Hadriatic Sea, he made his way, in 
disguise, into Austria, where he was seized hy Leopold j 
Duke of that country, who had been insulted by 
Richard during the Crusade. The Duke sold his 
captive to iht Empe^vr Henry VI., who, wishing to do 
Philip of France a pleasure, kept Richard closely 
guarded, and at one time, it is said, loaded with fetters. 
He was brought before a meeting of princes of the 
Empire, on various accusations, among them, that of 
having procured the assassination of a fellow Crusader, 
Conrad, Marquess of Montferrat ; and although he 
cleared himself, the Emperor still insisted on so heavy 
a ransom that to r.aise it every Englishman had to give 
a fourth of his goods ; even the church plate and jewels 
were taken to make up the sum. After more than a 
year's captivity, Richard was freed, in February 1194. 



78 RICHARD 1. [CHAP 

'* Take care of yourself, for the devil is let loose," so 
Philip wrote to John, when he heard that the King 
and the Emperor were coming to terms ; but Richard 
Inflicted on the brother who had tried to bribe the 
Emperor to detain him in prison, no punishment be 
yond depriving him of his lands and castles. Even 
this penalty he soon so far remitted as to restore some 
of his estates, though he would not again trust him 
with castles. 

4. Death of Richard.— The rest of Richard's 
life was chiefly spent in war against Philip Augustus. 
In April, 11 99, the King perished in a petty quarrel 
with the Viscount of Limoges, one of his foreign 
barons, about a treasure which had been discovered 
on the estate of the latter. The Viscount yielded a 
part of the gold to his lord the King, but would not 
give up the whole. While besieging the Viscount's 
castle of Chains- Chabrol, Richard was wounded in 
the shoulder by an arrow. The castle being stormed 
and taken, the King ordered all the garrison to be at 
once hanged, reserving only Bertrand de Gurdon, the 
crossbowman who had given him what proved to be 
his death-wound. Finding his end drawing near, he had 
Bertrand brought before him. " What harm have I 
done to thee, that thou hast killed me ? " The young 
archer, answering that his father and two brothers had 
fallen by Richard's hand, bade the King take what 
revenge he would. " I forgive thee my death," said 
Richard, and he ordered his release. Nevenheless, 
when the King was no more, Marcadeus, the captain 
of his mercenaries, had the crossbowman put to a 
cruel death. Early in his reign Richard had married 
Berengaria of Navarre, but had no children. 

5. Legendary reputation of Richard. — Le- 
gends soon gathered round the striking figure of 
Coeur de Lion, and he became a hero of romance. 
His surname probably suggested the tale of his having 
while in prison torn out with his hands the heart of a 



X9.} JOHN. 79 

lion sent to slay him ; another and a more touching 
story of his captivity tells how his faithful minstrel 
Blondel wandered seeking him, and discovered him 
by means of a song. Little as he had done for 
England, he came to be looked on as a national hero ; 
while among the Mohammedans his prowess was 
remembered in common phrases. '* Hush ye, here is 
King Richard ! " the mother would say to her crying 
child; and the Arab would exclaim to his starting 
horse, " Dost think it is King Richard ?*' 



CHAPTER XV. 

JOHN. 



Election of John j Arthur of Britanny; forfeiture of the 
French fiefs (i) — quarrel between John and the Pope ; 
sentence of deposition ; John becomes a vassal and 
tributary of Rome (2) — " The Army of God and of Holy 
Church " ; the Great Charter (3) — war between fohn 
and the Barons ; the crown offered to Louis of France 
ij^—JohrCs death; his children (5). 

1. John, surnamed Sansterre or Lackland, 
1199-1216. — In England y"^>^;/ was chosen King; but 
in Anjou, Maine, and Touraine, the barons desired for 
their ruler young Arthur of Brita7iny, son of John's 
elder brother Geoffrey ; and Philip of France, for his 
own purposes, took up the lad's cause. A victory be- 
fore Mirebeau in Pouou threw into John's power 
Arthur, together with many of his partisans, some of 
whom were starved to death in prison. It was be- 
lieved that the King ordered his nephew's eyes to be 
put out, but that the youth's keeper, Hubert of Burgh, 
would not carry out the sentence. However this may 



ao JOHN. [CHJUP. 

have been, Arthur disappeared after some months' 
captivity, and rumour accused his uncle of having 
stabbed him with his own hand, John was summoned 
by Philip to clear himself before the French Peers, and 
on his non-appearance he was adjudged to have for- 
feited his fiefs. PhiUp speedily made himself master 
of Normandy, Maine, Anjou, Touraine, and eventually 
of great part of Eleanor's inheritance ; but the Chari- 
nel Islands^ fragments of the Norman Duchy, together 
with Gasco7iy and part of Aquitaine, were left to the 
English King, To our country these losses proved a 
gain. Our sovereigns gradually became Englishmen, in- 
stead of being merely French princes holding England. 
2. The Interdict. — In 1205 John embroiled him- 
self with Pope lnnoce?it I 11.^ the dispute arising on 
the question whether the monks of Christ Church, 
Canterbury, had the sole right of electing the Arch 
bishop, or whether the bishops of the province had a 
voice in the matter. The Pope decided for the monks, 
who on his recommendation elected Stephen Langton^ 
an Englishman then in Rome, and the first scholar 
of the day. This enraged John, who had named 
another man for the place ; and as he refused to receive 
Stephen as Archbishop, Innocent laid the kingdom 
under an inte7'dict. That is, the churches were closed, 
and the Sacraments no longer administered, except to 
infants and the dying ; marriages took place only in 
the church porch : and the dead were buried silently 
and in unconsecrated ground. At first John was de- 
fiant. He confiscated the estates of the clergy vho 
observed the interdict, and often let outrages upon 
them pass unpunished. Theie is a story that a man 
who had robbed and murdered a priest was brought 
before the King : — " He has killed my enemy," quoth 
John, " loose him and let him go." As John, 
though excommunicated, would not give way, Inno 
cent declared him deposed from his throne, com- 
mitted the execution of the sentence to Philip of 



XV,] MAGNA CARTA. 8i 

France, and called on all Christian nobles and knights 
to join in a holy war against the English King. Undei 
this sentence, which Philip was preparing to carry out, 
John's courage failed him. His oppressive taxes, his 
harsh enforcement of the Forest laws, above all, his 
intolerable cruelty and licentiousness, had set high and 
low against him, and he could not count upon the 
support of his subjects. One Pefer, a hermit of York- 
shire, foretold that when the next Ascension-day should 
be passed John would have ceased to reign ; and in 
superstitious terror, the King not only admitted Stephen 
to the Archbishopric, but also by charter granted to 
the Pope the Kingdoms of England and Ireland to 
be henceforth held by John and his heirs by a yearly 
tribute. On the 15th May, 12 13, in the Templars' 
Church near Dover, he placed this charter in the 
hands of the Pope's envoy, the subdeacon Pandulf, 
and swore fealty to Innocent. In a week the 
Feast of the Ascension passed, and John had the 
hermit hanged for a false prophet. But people mur- 
mured that Peter had spoken true; John was no 
longer a sovereign, but a vassal. 

3. Magna Carta. — The Barons were now resolved 
to put a check upon John's tyranny ; and held a 
private meeting at St. Paul's Church, Aug. 25th, 
1 2 13, at which Langton brought forth the almost 
forgotten Charter of Henry I., which was heard with 
great joy by all present, who saw in it a precedent 
for the reforms they desired. Nothing however 
was done till the next year, in the autumn of which 
the confederate Barons took an oath upon the altar 
at St. Edmundsbury to withdraw their allegiance, if 
John should refuse their demands. At Eastertide, 
T 2 1 5, they assembled their forces. In his passion the 
King swore that he would never grant them hberties 
which would make him a slave ; but when the con- 
federates — '* t/ie Army of God and of Holy Churc/i " — 



83 JOHN. [CHAP 

marched under Rcbert Fitz-Walter upon London, and 
were willingly admitted, he was brought to submit 
k\. Runny mede. a meadow near Windsor, on June 15th, 
12 15, the King met the Barons, and sealed the Charter 
which embodied their demands. Thus was won Magna 
Carta, the Great Charter, held sacred to this day as 
the foundation of our liberties. Yet it was no new law, 
but rather a correction of abuses. The first clause 
secured the liberties of the EngUsh Church ; others 
were framed for removing the grievances of the Barons 
as tenants of the Crown. No sciitage or aid (assistance 
in money from a vassal to his lord) was to be levied 
without the consent of a national council of prelates, 
earls, barons, and the King's tenants generally, except 
for three specified purposes. (These were, to ransom 
the King from captivity, to provide for the expenses 
of making his eldest son a knight, or of giving his 
eldest daughter in marriage.) But, to their honour, 
the patriot nobles did not take thought for them- 
selves alone. The Charter provided that the rights 
they claimed should be extended by them to their 
own vassals. The "liberties and free customs" of 
London and other towns were secured. Protection 
was given against oppressions arising from process for 
debts or services due to the Ciown ; against unreason- 
able amercements (fines; ; and the abuses of the preroga- 
tive of purveyance and pre-emption — that is, the right 
claimed by the Crown of buying provisions at its own 
valuation, and of impressing carriages for its service. No 
man was to be so heavily amerced as to take away his 
means of living — to the landholder was to be left his 
land, to the merchant his merchandise, to the villain his 
team and instruments of husbandry — and the penalty 
was to be fixed by a jury of the neighbourhood. The 
royal officers were to pay for the provisions they 
took, and not to make use of the horses and carts of 
the freeman without his consent. The King should 



kv.^ war between JOHN AND THE BARONS. 83 

no longer make money out of the proceedings in 
courts of law : " To no man will we sell/' so runs the 
clause, " to no man will we deny, or delay, right or 
justice." Trade was encouraged by the promise that 
merchants should safely enter, leave, and pass through 
England without paying exorbitant customs. Above 
all, the liberty of the subject was secured. " No 
"^reeman " was to be " taken, or imprisoned, 01 
iisseized [dispossessed], or outlawed, or exiled, or in 
Jiny way destroyed .... except by lawful judg- 
ment of his peers, or by the law of the land." Twenty- 
five barons were nominated to see that the Great 
Charter was duly carried out, and were authorized to 
seize on the royal castles and lands if the King should 
fail to do his part. 

4. War between John and the Barons. — 
After the assembly had broken up, John buist into 
a rage, and began to devise means of revenge. He 
implored the aid of his lord the Pope, who thereupon 
annulled the Charter, that is, declared it to be of none 
effect ; telling the Barons that if they would submit, 
he would see that they were not oppressed. But 
rebuke, excommunication, the laying of London 
under an interdict, failed to daunt the Barons, who 
are said to have applied to the Pope the words oi 
Isaiah, *'Woe unto them which justify the wicked!" 
Langton would not publish the excommunication, and 
was in consequence suspended by Pandulf from the 
exercise of his functions as Archbishop. John also 
secured the more potent aid of a host of foreign 
mercenaries — savage freebooters trained to slaughter 
and spoil — while the baronial party took the de- 
sperate step of offering the crown to Louis, eldest son 
of Philip of France. At first the fortune of war 
favoured John, who, in order to punish the northern 
barons and their ally, young Alexander II. ^ King oj 
Scots, marched northwards, ravaging as he went, as fai 
as Berwick, then a Scottish town. " Thus," he cried, 

o a 



84 HENRY III. [chap 

aliuding to the colour of Alexander's hair, " will we 
chase the red fox-cub from his earths," — and he gave, 
it is said, the signal for the destruction of Berwick 
by firing with his own hands the house in which 
he had rested during the night At last, in May, 1216, 
Louis came o\ er with a French army, and was well 
supported. But when the Barons found the foreign 
prince granting lands and castles to his own country- 
men, they grew suspicious of him, and some began to 
think of returning to their allegiance. 

5. Death of John. — While John was crossing 
with his army the Wash of Lincolnshire, his baggage 
and treasures were swallowed by the rising tide. 
Vexation, coupled with a surfeit of peaches and cider 
— or, according to a later tradition, poison administered 
by a monk — threw him into a fever, of which he died 
at Newark, Oct. 19th, 1216, leaving an evil name 
behind him. He was the first Sovereign whose title 
appears on his Great Seal as King of Ejigland. By his 
second wife, Isabel of Angotileme, he had two sons — 
Henrj/j who succeeded him, and Richard^ Earl oj 
Cornwall^ who, in 1257, was, by some of the German 
princes, elected King of the Romans (the title borne by 
the Gennan King before his coronation as Emperor). 



CHAPTER XVI. 

HENRY m. 

Henry of Winchester ; departure of Louis (l) — Hubert 
of Burgh; marriage of Henry; the favourites; 
character of Henry ; the Londoners (2) — the Provisions 
of Oxford (3) — the Barons^ War (4) — Earl Simon^s 
Parliament (0 — battle of Evesham and death oj 
Simon J the Disinherited (6)— death of Henry if)—- 
Magna Carta (8) — the Universities (9) — Gothic archi- 
Ucture (10). 



XVI.] CHARACTER OF HENRY. 8«; 

1. Henry III., of Winchester, 12161272.— 
On the tenth day after John's death, the Royalists 
crowned at Gloucester his eldest son Henrys then only 
nine years old. A plain circlet of gold was placed 
on the child's head, for the rrown had been lost with 
the rest of the royal treasures. Williajn Marshal, 
Earl of Feffibroke, a wise and good statesman, wa& 
made "Governor of the King and Kingdom." Many 
barons now left the French standard ; and two battles 
put an end to the hopes of Louis. The first, fought in 
May 1 2 17, in the streets of Lincoln, between the Earl 
of Pembroke and the French Count of Perche, was 
jestingly termed by the victorious Royalists •" the Fair 
of Lincoln." The second was a sea-fight between the 
Justiciar Hubert of Burgh, and a noted pirate, Eustace 
the Monk, who was bringing a French fleet to the 
relief of Louis Hubert, who held Dover Casde, 
could get together only forty sail, to oppose to more 
than eighty of the enemy, and his case seemed so 
desperate that several knights would not accompany 
him. But his courage was rewarded, for the English, 
fearlessly boarding the enemy's ships and cutting the 
rigging, gained a complete victory. After this Louis 
was glad to make peace and go home. King Alex- 
ander of Scotland and the North-Welsh prince 
Llywdy?!^ son of Jorwerth, acknowledged the young 
Sovereign, who now reigned undisputed. 

2. Character of Henry. — The history of Henry's 
reign is for a long time that of a struggle against foreign 
influence. The adventurers who had been in John's 
service exercised great power, until they were got rid 
of by Hubert of Burgh, who, after the Earl of Pem- 
broke's death, took a leading part in the government. 
When Hubert in 1232 lost the King's favour, the 
Bishop of Winchester, Peter des Roches^ a native of 
Poitou, came into power, and with him a new set oi 
foreigners, who were not removed until some of the 
Barons had taken up arms against the Kmg. Then, 



86 HENRY III. [CMAf. 

at the age of twenty-nine, Henry married Eleanor, 
daughter of Raymond, Count of Provence. She was 
beautiful and accomplished, but was disliked on ac- 
count of the favours lavished on her kindred, who 
looked upon England as a mine of wealth, out of 
which they were to get as much as they could. 
After these, there came the King's foreign kinsfolk, 
the sons of his mother by her second marriage. In- 
solent and masterful in their prosperity, the favourites 
met every complaint of the English with the reply, 
" We have nothing to do with the law of the land." 
Though the King had no positive vices, he was weak, 
vain, and ostentatiously liberal, and consequently 
always poor and greedy for money. On the birth of 
his first son Edward^ he sought after gifts with such 
eagerness, t"hat a Norman said, " Heaven gave us this 
child, but the King sells him to us." The rich London 
citizens complained of the heavy tallages laid upon 
them. "Those ill-bred Londoners," as Henry once 
called them, were no friends of the Court, and their 
mutual dislike often broke out. One day the young 
men of the City w^ere playing at the quintain, a game 
which exercised the man-at-arms in managing his 
horse and lance, when some of the royal attendants 
and pages insulted the citizens, calling them "scunry 
clowns and soap makers," and entered the lists to 
oppose them. The young Londoners had the satis- 
faction of beating their courtly antagonists " black 
and blue," but the City paid for it in a heavy fine 
imposed by the King. 

3. The Provisions of Oxford. — The Popes 
claimed the right to tax the clergy, upon whom they 
made almost yearly demands, which were complained 
of as much as the royal exactions. They were further 
answerable for leading Henry into his most signal 
act of folly, by offering to his second son Edmund the 
crown of Sicily, or rather the empty title, for the actual 
kingdom could only be gained by war tlie expcnset o( 



xvLl THE BARONS' WAR. 89 

which Henry pledged England to repay. Aghast at 
finding how enormous was the sum to which they were 
committed, the Barons in 1258 compelled Henry to 
agree that twenty-four persons should be chosen, half 
by him, half by themselves, to reform the government. 
These twenty-four were appointed in a Farliament^ 
as the national council of barons and bishops was now 
called, held at Oxford,— the "Mad Parliament," 
Henry's friends named it. By this committee were 
drawn up " the Froviswns of Oxford,'' under which 
the royal authority was in fact placed in the hands of 
a council of fifteen. The King's foreign kinsmen 
and favourites had to surrender the royal castles they 
held ; upon which they left the country, carrying with 
them only a small part of the treasure they had 
amassed. But the new government did not long 
work smoothly. The Barons quarrelled among them- 
selves, and Henry took advantage of this to try to get 
back his authority. 

4. The Barons* War. — This ended in a war 
between the King and the malcontent Barons, the 
latter being headed by the most able man of their 
party, Simon of Montforty a Frenchman who had 
obtained the Earldom of Leicester, upon which his 
family had a claim, had married the King's sister 
Eleanor, and had become a thorough Englishman. 
He was a brave and devout man, somewhat hot- 
tempered and impatient of opposition, but bearing 
a high reputation for skill in war and statesmanship. 
The unstable King, who had been the making of 
him, soon fell out with him; and since 1258 
Simon had stood forth as the leader of the party of 
reform. His strength lay not so much in the nobles, 
who did not thoroughly trust him, as in the clergy, the 
Universities, the people generally, and especially the 
Londoners, who showed their dislike of the royal 
family in a manner which did them no credit. On 
the fijst breaking out of war, the Queen attempted to 



88 HENRY IIL [chap 

pass by water from the Tower to Windsor Castle ; but 
as soon as her barge approached the bridge, the 
Londoners assailed her with abuse, threw down mud 
upon her, and by preparing to sink her boat forced hei 
to return. The battle of Lewes, May 14, 1264, put 
an end for the time to the war. The action was 
begun by the King's son Edward, who charged the 
Londoners in the baronial army with such vigour as 
to send them flying in utter rout ; but his eagerness to 
avenge his mother led him to chase them four miles, 
and while he was slaughtering fugitives, his own 
friends were defeated by Simon. King Henry, who 
had defended himself gallantly, had no choice but to 
surrender ; while his brother the King of the Romans 
was captured in a windmill, to the great glee of his 
adversaries, whose mocking song, how " the King of 
Alemaigne " " made him a castle of a mill," has come 
down to us. The next day a treaty, the " Mise oj 
Lewesl^ was concluded, under which Edward was given 
as a hostage to the conquerors. Though orders and 
writs continued to run in the royal name, and the 
King was treated with respect, he became no better 
than a prisoner to Earl Simon. In vain the Papai 
legate, Guy Foulquois, threatened the baronial party 
with excommunication : as soon as the Bulls (writings 
sealed with the Pope's bulla or seal) containing the 
sentence arrived, the Dover men threw them into 
the sea. 

5. Earl Simon's Parliament. — The most famous 
act of Earl Simon during his rule was the summoning, 
in Henry's name, of the first Parliament to whic:h 
representatives of the borough towns were called. 
The Great Council of the realm, the assembly of the 
King's tenants, was already known by the French or 
Italian name of Farliamejit ; but Simon was the first 
to show how it might be made what we understand by 
that name, an assembly representing every class of 
freemen. Its materials he found reidy to his hand 



XVI.] BATTLE OF EVESHAM. 89 

The greater Barons, out of whom in later days our House 
of Lords or Peers was formed, came, as they still do, 
in person to the national council ; and as the smaller 
tenants of the Crown or freeholders were too numerous 
to do likewise, a few of their number had occasionally 
been summoned to act for them — so many knights 
from each county. This was the origin of our 
county members, who still are called Kjiights of the 
Shire. But a House of knights alone would have 
been a poor representation of the whole people. 
Simon brought the towns also into the national 
assembly, making not only each county send two 
knights, but each dty and borough send two of their 
citizens or burgesses. It was not however till thirty 
years later that representatives of the towns began to 
be regularly and continuously summoned to Parlia- 
ment, forming, together with the knights, our House 
of Commons. Simon's Parliament, which met Jan. 
20, 1265, was not what would be called a full and free 
Parliament. The number of earls and barons was 
small, Simon having summoned only those who 
supported him ; on the other hand there was a large 
body of clergy, as among that class he had many 
friends. 

6. Battle of Evesham. — Earl Simon '*the 
Rightfous" as he was called, did not keep his power 
much longer. His sons gave offence by their 
haughtiness and ill-conduct, and one of the foremost 
of the Barons, Gilbert of Clare, Earl of Gloucester, 
entered into league with the Royalist Mortimers, one 
of the great families on the Welsh marches. Hoping to 
bring about Edward's escape, his friends sent him a 
fleet horse, upon which, having craftily got leave for 
a race or trial of horses, he galloped away from his 
escort, bidding them farewell with sarcastic courtesy. 
Fortune now turned against the Earl of Leicester, 
whose plans were defeated by his son Simon allowing 
himself to be surprised by Edward and the Earl of 



90 HENRY III. [CHAP. 

Gloucester at Kenilworth. Edward and Gloucestei 
then advanced against the elder Simon at Evesham^ 
Aug. 4, 1265, and, by displaying in their van the 
banners they had won at Kenilworth, deluded their 
adversaries into taking the approaching force for that 
of young Simon. When the ensigns of the Royalist 
leaders at length appeared, the elder Simon saw that 
he was outnumbered and outgeneralled. "They 
come up in skilful fashion, but they have learned that 
orxlering from me, not of themselves," said the veteran 
warrior ; " now let us commend our souls to God, for 
our bodies are theirs." King Henry, being forced to 
appear in the baronial ranks, ran no small risk, until 
the fall of his helmet revealed him to the too zealous 
friends who were attacking him. Earl Simon, un- 
horsed and hemmed in by foes, fought on valiantly, 
till a blow from behind ended his life. His body was 
brutally mangled by the Royalists, but some relics of 
the corpse were buried by the friendly monks of Eves- 
ham ; and the clergy and people in general honoured 
him as a martyr. This victory restored Henry to 
power, although '* the Disinherited'' — that is, Simon's 
adherents and their sons, whose estates were con- 
fiscated — kept up a fierce plundering warfare for two 
years longer. In the end they were allowed to redeem 
their estates, though this advantage was not extended 
to the Montfort family. Among the last to yield was 
the North-Welsh prince, Llywelyn^ son of Gruffydd, 
who had been in alliance with Karl Simon, and whose 
submission was soothed by the title o^ Prince of Wales. 
7. Death of Henry. — The land being now at 
peace, Edward and Edmund set off upon what proved 
to be the last Crusade ;and during their absence King 
Henr>' died, Nov. 16, 1272. He was buried in West- 
minster Abbey, which he had begun to rebuild ; and 
ere his sepulchre was closed, the Earl of Gloucester, 
laying his hand on the corpse, swore fealty to the 
absent Edward, who was at cnce proclaimed King. 



xn.] MAGNA CARTA. 91 

8. Magna Carta. — The Great Cnarter, with the 
omission of the clauses touching taxation and the 
national council, and with some other alterations, was 
thrice re-issued in this reign : first, on the accession of 
Henry; secondly, after the departure of Louis, when a 
Charter of the Forest was added, which declared that 
no man should lose life or limb for taking the King's 
game ; thirdly, in 1225, being the condition upon which 
Henry obtained a grant of money from the national 
council. In this last form it was afterwards confirmed 
more than thirty times. The proverbial phrase, 
Nolumus leges Anglice mutare^ (We will not change the 
laws of England,) dates from this reign, it having 
been the answer of the earls and barons in council al 
Merton in 1236, when urged by the bishops to bring 
the law of inheritance into accordance with the eccle- 
siastical law. 

9. The Universities. — The English Universities, 
which began to be of importance in the time of Henry, 
nad arisen in the twelfth century, being at first gather- 
ings of independent masters and scholars, not attached 
to any great ecclesiastical foundation, and not as yet 
formed into endowed societies. The first of these 
settlements of students was at Oxford, which was then 
one of the chief towns of England, a strong military 
post, and a place in which great national assemblies 
were often held. There in 1133, a Breton, Robert 
Pulan, first began to lecture on divinity, and in 
1 1 49, Vacarius, a Lombard, began to teach the 
Roman law. By the close of the thirteenth century, 
Oxford ranked as one of the greatest schools of the 
Western world. Ca?nbridge also became the seat of 
an University, but of its early history hardly anything 
is known. Incorporated and endowed colleges within 
the Universities were first founded in the thirteenth 
century. 

10. Gothic Architecture. — In the last years of 
the twelfth century arose the Pointed or Gothic style 



98 EDWARD 1. [CHAP. 

of architectuie, which flourished until the introduction 
of the Italian style in the sixteenth century. When it 
had gone out of fashion, and its beauties were not appre- 
ciated, the name of Gothic, which had the sense of 
barbarous^ was fixed upon it in scorn. It is also called 
pointed^ because its leading feature is the pointed arch. 
Salisbury Cathedral is a good specimen of early Gothic \ 
and the Eleanor Crosses, and the nave of York 
Minster, of that which prevailed under the first three 
Edwards. The naves of Winchester and Canterbury 
Cathedrals represent the form intermediate between 
York nave and the latest Gothic, of which the chapels 
of St. George at Windsor and of Henry VII. at West- 
minster are examples. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

EDWARD L 

Edward I. (i) — war with Prince Llywelynj death oj 

Llywelyn and of David ; creation of the Prince oj 
Wales ; Wales annexed to England (2) — competitors 
for the Scottish Crown ; decision of Edward ; conquest 
of Scotland ; deposition of Balliol ; Stone of Scotie (3) 
William Wallace ; second conquest of Scotland ; 
murder of Corny n ; Bfuce crowned King of Scots ; 
death of Edward (4) — family of Edwa7-d (5) — legisla- 
tion ; Parliament ; Confirmation of the Charters ; 
parliamentary taxation (6) — expulsion of the few s (7), 

I. Edward, First from the Norman Con 
quest, surnamed Longshanks, 1272-1307. — 

Edward^ the first English prince after the Norman 
Conquest who was an Englishman at heart, was strong 
and tall, towering by head and shoulders above the 



vvii.] CONQUEST OF WALES. 9.-^ 

crowd, a good horseman, a keen hunter, and noted for 
his skill in knightly exercises. His credit as a Crusader 
was heightened by his having narrowly escaped with 
his hfe from the poisoned dagger of a Mohammedan 
assassin. The touching story that his wife, Eleanor oj 
Castile^ at her own peril sucked the venom from his 
wound, is but a romance ; for in truth Edward's forti- 
tude was put to the test of having the poisoned flesh 
cut out. He could hold his own in hand-to-hand fight, 
was a skilful general, and never grudged taking his 
share of the hardships of war. During a campaign 
in Wales, when he and some of his men ran short of 
provisions, he refused to have the small supply of 
wine reserved for himself. " In time of need all 
things ought to be in common," he said, " I, who am 
the cause of your being in this strait, will fare no better 
than you." Besides being a good soldier, he was a 
great statesman and ruler. Loving power, he was loth 
to give it up, but he knew when to yield ; his chief 
fault was a disposition to strain his legal rights, and 
keep to the letter of the law rather than to its spirit. 

2. Conquest of Wales. — Upon Edward's acces- 
sion, Llywelyn, Prince of Wales, was called upon to 
do homage. This he persistently evaded, till he was 
at length declared a rebel, and was soon brought by 
force of arms to submit. For some years there was 
peace, though both prince and people still hoped to 
win their independence. Resistance was first made 
by the very man from whom Edward could least have 
expected it, Dafydd or David, who had fought on the 
English side against his brother Llywelyn, and had 
been favoured and enriched by Edward. ' He raised 
in 1282 a formidable insurrection ; but after Llywelyn 
hac fallen in a chance encounter with an English 
knight, the Welsh chieftains yielded, and David, being 
delivered up by his own countrymen, was put to death 
as a traitor and a murderer, Sept. 20, 1283. Llywe 
lyn's head, encircled with a wreath of silver ivy-lea vcs, 



94 EDWARD I. [chap 

was set over the Tower, in mockery of a prophecy 
that the Prince of Wales should be crowned in 
London. The King's son Edward was born April 
25, 1284, at Caernarvon, and sixteen years later was 
created Prince of IVa/es, a title which thenceforth was 
usually conferred on the Sovereign's eldest son. The 
legend that the King promised to give the Welsh a 
native prince who could not speak a word of English, 
and that he then presented to them his infant son, 
rests on no good authority. Another story, that the 
King, finding that the native dards or poets kept alive 
the memories of the ancient glories of Wales, had 
them all massacred, is a fiction only worthy of notice 
because it has been made famous by the poet Gray. 
Wales, though after Llywelyn's fall it was annexed to 
England, was still in many respects a separate country, 
and the marches remained as before under the sway 
of the '^ Lords Marchers,'' English nobles holding 
feudal lordships within which they exercised almost 
sovereign jurisdiction. 

3. Conquest of Scotland. — The Scots^ undei 
which name were now included all the people north 
of Tweed and Solway, whether Gaelic-speaking 
Celts of the Highlands or English-speaking Teutons 
of the Lowlands, were without a King ; the last ol 
their old Celtic line of princes was dead, and there 
'«^as a crowd of claimants to the throne. Of these the 
foremost were John Ballioi, Lord of Galloway, and 
Robert Bruce, Lord of Annaiidale, noblemen of Norman 
origin, holding lands both in England and Scotland, 
who rested their claim upon their descent from nieces 
of William the Lion. Neither had much right 
to be called a Scot — indeed, most of the Scottish 
nobles were descended from Normans who had found 
favour with the Scottish Kings, and often had more 
interest in England than in Scotland. The English 
King was called in to decide, and accordingly in 1291 
he held an assembly of Scots and Englishmen at Nor 



KVIL] CONQUEST OF SCOTLAND. 95 

ham. He began by demanding that the Scots should 
acknowledge him as their feudal Superior or Overlord 
— an ancient claim of the English Kings, but one 
which the Scottish Kings had been disposed to evade 
or deny. Now however the Scottish nobles and 
prelates, who probably did not care to argue the point 
with so powerful and warlike a prince as Edward, 
found nothing to say against it. After due enquiry, 
Edward gave judgment in favour of Balliol, whose 
fealty and homage for the realm of Scotland he then 
received. But the new King and his barons, disliking 
their position as vassals, took advantage in 1295 of a 
quarrel between France and England, to ally them- 
selves with France and go to war with England. In 
this they were worsted ; and Balliol being compelled to 
give up the crown in 1296, Edward took possession of 
Scotland as a fief forfeited by the treason of its holder, 
received the homage of the Scottish nobles and prelates, 
and filled the highest offices in the country with English- 
men, Johny Earl of Wafrenne and Surrey ^ being 
appointed Guardian. Edward carried away the Scot- 
tish crown jewels, and with them a relic whose loss 
was deeply felt. At Scone there was a fragment of 
rock on which the Scots King was wont to be placed 
at his coronation. It had been, so legend said, the 
pillow of Jacob at Bethel ; and where that fated stone 
was, there the Scots should reign. The conqueror 
placed it, enclosed in a throne, in Westminster Abbey, 
where the stone and chair still remain, and upon them 
every King of England has since been crowned. 

4. Wallace and Bruce. — Edward was not a 
harsh conqueror, but Southern domination was hateful 
to the people of the Lowlands. It was from these, 
men of English speech and for the most part of 
English blood, and not from the Celtic Scots of the 
North, to whom the change of rule made little differ- 
ence, that the resistance to the English King came. 
The presence of Edward's garrisons, the unwonted 



96 EDWARD I. [CHAB 

taxes imposed to provide for the maintenance of ordei 
in the half-subdued land, soon aroused opposition. 
Williatn Wallace, a Clydesdale man, who made him- 
self a name as a chief of outlaws, headed the popular 
inovement. Mustering the people of the Lowlands 
north of Tay, he defeated near Stirlmg an English 
army led by Earl Warrenne \ and after having ravaged 
Northumberland and Cumberland, he became ruler 
of Scotland under the title of Guardian of tht 
Kingdom. His fall was as rapid as his rise. Edward 
routed the insurgents at Falki7'k, July 22, 1298, 
after which Wallace resigned the Guardianship, and 
eventually sank back into his outlaw's life. The 
Scottish nobles kept up the war some years longer, 
but were again obliged to yield. Wallace was re- 
quired to surrender to the King's mercy. This he 
feared or disdained to do ; and being captured, he 
was brought to London and hanged at Tyburn, Aug, 
23, 1305, winning by his death his place as the national 
hero of Scotland. What he had failed to achieve was 
brought about by Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick, 
grandson of that Bruce who had claimed the throne. 
Early in 1306, this young Bruce had an interview in 
the Grey Friars' Church at Dumfries with John Corny n 
of Badenoch, who, after the line of Balliol, was the 
nearest heir to the Scottish throne. Rumour said that 
Bruce urged Comyn to join in an attempt to restore 
the kingdom, and that Comyn hung back. Anyhow 
the end of it was that Bruce stabbed Comyn, leaving 
him wounded in the church, where he was despatched 
by one of Bruce's followers. Bruce had now no chance 
of safety but in playing the boldest game. Summon- 
ing the Scots to his standard, he had himself crowned 
King at Scone. Edward's deepest anger was roused by 
this sacrilegious murder, which he solemnly vowed to 
avenge. Being in feeble health, he could only move 
northwards by easy stages, but he sent in advance 
his son Edward, who began so ruthlessly to waste 



XVII.] LEGISLATION OF EDWARD. 97 

the Scottish country that his father had to check hi« 
cruelty. Bruce, with his followers, was hunted about 
from place to place, but he gained some small success, 
sufficient to irritate Edward, who thereupon advanced 
from Carlisle as soon as he felt his health would 
permit. But the mere exertion of mounting his horse 
proved almost too much for him, and in the next 
four days he could only move six miles, reaching 
Burgh-on-the-Sands, where, within sight of Scotland, 
he died, July 7, 1307. 

5. Family of Edward. — Edward's first wife, 
Eleanor, died in 1290, in Lincolnshire, and wherever 
her corpse rested on its way to Westminster a cross 
was raised to her memory. " We loved her tenderly 
in her life-time ; we do not cease to love her in death," 
said the King, when asking the Abbot of Cluny to 
intercede for her soul. Of Eleanor's four sons, three 
died in childhood; the youngest, Edward, succeeded 
his father. The King's second wife was Margaret, 
sister of Philip IV., the Fair, of France. Her sons 
were Thomas of Bi'othertofi, Earl of Norfolk, and 
Edmund of Woodstock, Earl of Kent. 

6. Legislation. — Notwithstanding that Simon of 
Montfort had been Edward's foe, his system of 
parliamentary representation was in its main lines 
adopted and established by Edward, and has en- 
dured to this day. In the earlier part of Edward's 
reign the presence of representatives of the shires and 
towns was still not thought necessary to a Parliament \ 
but the year 1295 saw the first summons of a true 
Parliament, which served as a model for future assem- 
blies of the nation. There were the Earls and great 
Barons, the Archbishops, Bishops, and Abbots, sum- 
moned severally in person by the King's special writ ; 
and the Commons summoned by writs addressed to 
the sheriffs, bidding them send up two elected knights 
from each shire, two citizens from each city, and two 
burgesses from each borough Representatives of the 

H 



98 EDWARD L [chap. 

clergy were also summoned, so that the Parliament 
was an assembly of the Three Estates (classes or 
orders) of the Realm — Clergy, Lords, and Commons. 
As however the lower clergy did not care about 
sitting in Parliament, preferring to vote their taxes in 
their own meetings or convocations, in practice the 
English Parliament has for long consisted of only two 
Estates, Lords or Peers, and Commons, who sit apart 
in two Houses — a division which was not made till 
after Edward's time. The House of Lords was made 
up of those great nobles and prelates who were 
specially summoned to Parliament, the right to be so 
summoned descending, in the case of the lay lords, 
from father to son ; the elected representatives 
formed the House of Commons. As the lesser 
Darons were not summoned to Parliament, they 
passed into the mass of commoners. Edward and 
his Parliaments made a number of useful laws ; but 
the chief reform of the reign was won much against 
the King's will and almost by force. Roger Bigod, 
Earl of Norfolk, and Humfrey Bohun, Earl oj 
Hereford, in 1297 made a determined stand against 
the King's levying money and provisions on his sole 
authority, which he had been led to do under the 
pressure of the French and Scottish war. The two 
Earls obtained from him the Conftr?nation of the 
Charters, with the important addition that he should 
not make such exactions or impose such taxes without 
" the common assent of the realm." Thus was 
estabUshed the principle that the nation cannot be 
taxed except by its consent given in Parliament. The 
words used were not so precise as to prevent all 
evasion, and the kings soon found out ways of raising 
money without consulting Parliament ; but it was 
always felt that to do so was contrary to the spirit 
of the constitution. 

7. tLxpulsion of the Jews. — The Jews were 
hateful to the people, both because they were not 



xvm.] EDWARD n. 99 

Christians, and because they were usurers. They 
alone could lend money on interest, for the Scriptures 
were thought to forbid that practice to Christians, and 
thereby they made enormous profits. They were 
accused of horrible crimes, and were often subjected 
to great cnielties by the fierce and ignorant people 
among whom they lived ; but hated as they were, they 
yet grew rich under the protection of the Sovereign, 
whose slaves and chattels the law accounted them. 
As he could tax them at his pleasure, it was his 
interest to protect them and to give every encourage- 
ment to their trade. But at last, in 1290, Edward, being 
unable to withstand the popular feeling against them, 
after a vain attempt to convert them to Christianity, 
ordered them all, on pain of death, to quit the king- 
dom, allowing them however to carry away their 
money and goods. Harsh as this order was, it is 
fair to Edward to consider that by it he sacrificed a 
source of revenue to the wishes of his people. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



EDWARD II. 

Edward 11, s Piers Gaveston (i) — marriage and coro- 
nation of Edward: general enmity against Piers ; the 
Ordainers; death of Piers (2) — battle of Bannockbum 
(3) — the Scots in Ireland (4) — the Despensersj behead- 
ing of the Earl of Lancaster (5) — invasion of Isabel 
and Mortimer ; exf Mtion of the Despensers; deposition 
of Edward {^—murder of Edward (7) — suppression oj 
the Knights Templars (8). 

I Edward II., of Caernarvon, 1307-1327, — 
The young King already had a favourite. Piers or 

LofC. H» 



too EDWARD II. [CHAP. 

Peter of Gaveston^ son of a Gascon gentleman 
Edward I. had chosen him to be his son's com- 
panion in boyhood — a choice he had cause to rue 
for Piers led the Prince of Wales into wild and law 
less courses, which the elder Edward tried in vain tc 
restrain. Once indeed he imprisoned his son for 
breaking the park and destroying the deer of the 
Treasurer, Walter of Langton, Bishop of Chester ; and 
some months before the old King's death Piers was 
banished. Among the injunctions laid upon his son 
by the dying Edward, one was that he should never 
recair Gaveston without consent of Parliament ; another 
was that he should go on with the Scottish war. But 
his commands were set at nought. The new King 
soon gave up the Scottish expedition and hastened to 
recall Piers, whom he loaded with riches and honours, 
and left as Regent during his own absence in France 
for his marriage. 

2. General Enmity against Gaveston. — At 
Boulogne, early in 1308, the King married Isabel, 
daughter of Philip the Fair of France. On his return 
he was met by the Regent and the English barons. 
The disgust of these latter was great when they saw 
the King, without noticing anyone else, throw himself 
into his favourite's arms and call him brother. When 
at the coronation the place of honour was given to 
Piers, the irritation was increased, and the barons 
soon began to demand his banishment. Edward, 
reluctantly yielding, appointed Piers to the govern- 
ment of Ireland, where he seems to have shown 
courage and ability. Want of money obhged the 
King to summon a Parliament, from which, though 
not till after he had given a favourable answer to its 
petition for redress of certain grievances, he obtained 
the needed supply. He also prevailed on the nobles 
to consent that Piers, whom he had again recalled, 
might remain with him, " provided he should demean 
himself properly " Piers however was far from demean- 



jcviii.] BATTLE OF BANNOCKBURN. loi 

ing himself properly in the eyes of the nobles. When 
he was at court nothing went on but dancing, feasting, 
and merry-making ; and their feelings were further 
embittered by the contemptuous nicknames he be- 
stowed upon them. Discontent again showed itself, 
and in 131 o Edward was obliged to give up the 
government for a year to a committee of bishops, 
earls,' and barons. '' The Ordatners," as they were 
called, drew up articles of reform, lessening the King's 
power, and again banishing Piers. Edward, after 
complaining and entreating in vain, parted in tears 
with his favourite. But not a year had passed before 
Piers rejoined the King, upon which the barons took 
up arms under Thomas^ Earl of Lancaster, cousin to 
the King, and besieging Piers in Scarborough Castle, 
obliged him to surrender. His enemy, Gtdy Beau- 
champs Earl of Warwick, upon whom Piers had fixed 
the name of *' The Black Dog," carried him off to 
his own castle ; and, his death being determined on, 
he was beheaded in the presence of Earl Thomas, on 
Blacklow Hill, near Warwick, June 19, 1312. 

3. Battle of Bannockburn.— While Edward 
was wrangling with his barons, Scotland was lost, the 
fortresses there falling one by one into the hands of 
Bruce. At last, in 13 14, Edward, with a large army, 
set out to save Stirling Castle, whose governor had 
agreed to surrender if not relieved before the Feast of 
St. John the Baptist, June 24. Almost the same story 
is told of this battle as of Hastings. The English, it 
is said, spent the vigil in revelry, shouting their old 
drinking cries of " Wassail " and " Drink hail ; " the 
Scots kept it fasting. The battle took place on the 
morrow near Bannockburn. Bruce's small force, chiefly 
made up of infantry, was disposed in squares or 
circles of spearmen, upon which the heavy cavalry, 
which formed the strength of the English army, dashed 
themselves in vain. Ill led, and thrown into disorder, 
tile English broke up in utter rout, many of the flying 



loe EDWARD IL [CHAP. 

horsemen floundering into pitfalls which the Scots had 
dug in the plain. Edward fled, closely pursued by a 
party of Scottish horse, and all his treasures and 
supplies fell into the hands of the victors. Scotland 
had now won her independence, though it was long 
before the English would treat Bruce as King. 

4. The Scots in Ireland. — Ireland was torn 
asunder between the settlers in the " pale " or Erfglish 
district, and the native septs or clans, who were for 
ever making war upon each other and among them- 
selves. O'Neill and other chiefs of Ulster, joined by 
the Lacys, a Norman-English family, now offered the 
Irish crown to Edward Bruce ^ brother of Robert. 
Edward came over with an army to Ulster in 1315 ; 
and there gaining, together with his Irish allies, some 
victories, was crowned King at Carrickfergus. But 
the Irish hopes were broken by the defeat of Athenree, 
August 10, 13 16; and two years later Edward Bruce 
fell in battle near Dundalk. 

5. The Despensers. — After a time, the King 
found a new favourite. Sir Hugh k Despenser, upon 
whom he bestowed large estates. Despenser and 
his father, who was Edward's chief adviser, were soon 
as much a cause of strife as Gaveston had been, and 
sentence of forfeiture and exile was passed upon them 
by the Peers. An affront offered to the Queen by 
Lady Badlesmere, who refused to admit her into 
Leeds Castle, roused Edward to take up arms, and 
finding himself better supported than he had ex- 
pected, he proceeded to attack the Lords Marchers, 
who had harried the lands of the Despensers, and 
been foremost in obtaining their banishment. Earl 
Thomas rose in aid of his friends, but being de- 
feated at Boroughbridge, was led captive to his own 
castle of Pontefract, condemned as a rebel and traitor, 
and beheaded. He had been in treasonable com- 
munication with the Scots, and altogether deserved 
little pity ; but he had set himself up as the friend of 



xviJi.] DEPOSITION OF EDWARD II 103 

the clergy and people, and he was popularly accounted 
a martyr. His chief ally, Humfrey Bohun, Earl of 
Hereford, son of the Bohun who had withstood 
Edward I., had fallen in the fight. Another leading 
man of Lancaster's party, Roger of Mortimer, Lord oj 
Wigmere, was condemned to death, but the sentence 
was changed to imprisonment 

6. Deposition of Edward. — On divers pretexts 
Charles IV., King of France, quarrelled with Edward, 
who, believing that his wife would have influence 
with her brother, sent her in 1325 to France to nego- 
tiate for him, and allowed his eldest son, Edward^ 
Earl of Chester, a boy of twelve, to join her. Months 
passed without either mother or son returning, Isabel 
professing to have fears of Hugh Despenser. At last, 
September 24, 1326, she landed in Suffolk ; but it was 
at the head of foreign soldiers and a number of exiles, 
among them Roger Mortimer, who had escaped from 
the Tower. So unpopular were the Despensers that 
the Queen was hailed as a deliverer ; while the King, 
after vainly appealing to the loyalty of the Londoners, 
fled to the West, where his favourite's estates lay. 
The elder Despenser, now Earl of Winchester^ who 
commanded at Bristol, being forced to surrender 
to Isabel, was hanged forthwith. Edward was cap- 
tured in Glamorgan, together with the younger De- 
spenser, who, crowned with nettles, was hanged fifty 
feet high at Hereford. The King being carried 
prisoner to Kenilworth, a Parliament was summoned, 
which resolved that he was unworthy to reign, and 
that his eldest son should be King in his stead. The 
crowd that filled Westminster Hall shouted assent ; 
but Isabel feigned violent grief, anp young Edward, 
touched by her seeming sorrow, vowed that he would 
never take the crown against his father's will A 
resignation was therefore obtained from the elder 
Edward, who yielded with tears ; and the ceremony was 
dosed by the steward of the household. Sir Thomas 



104 EDWARD III. [chap. 

Blount, breaking his staff of office and declaring all 
persons in the royal service discharged, as was done 
at a King's death. 

7. Murder of Edward.— From Edward's de- 
position to his death was but a step. He was made 
over to the keeping of Sir John de Maltravers, who, 
to conceal his abode, moved him from castle to castle, 
and by insults and ill-usage strove to destroy his 
reason or his life. Finally he was placed in Berkeley 
Castle, where, on the 2Tst September, 1327, he was 
cruelly and secretly murdered, a deed which Mortimer 
afterwards confessed to have commajided. 

8. Suppression of the Templars. — It was in 
the time of this King that Pope Clement V. suppressed 
throughout Europe the wealthy Order of the Knights 
Templars, soldier- monks who had done great service 
in the Holy Wars. The Order therefore came to an 
end in England as elsewhere, and all its property was 
confiscated. Its London abode in Fleet Street, the 
Temple, afterwards passed into the hands of two 
societies of lawyers, the Inner and Middle Temple^ to 
whom it still belongs. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



EDWARD HI. 

Edward III,; Mortimer and the Queen; Peace with 

Scotland; fall of Mortimer (i) — claim upon the French 
Crown; the Hundred Years' War; battles of Sluys 
and CrScy ; takiftg of Calais ; battle of Nevilles Cross; 
{2)— the Black Death (3) — battle of Poitiers {i^— Peace 
of Bretigny (5) — the Spanish expedition ; disaffection 
of Aquitaine ; losses of the English (6) — the Gooa 
Parliament ; death of the Black Prince (7) — death of 
Edward (8) — legislation {())— commerce {io)—foh*i 
IVycltffe (11). 



XIX.] THE HUNDRED YEARS* WAR. 105 

1. Edward III., of Windsor, 1327-1377.— As 

the new King was only fourteer., guardians were 
appointed to carry on the government; but the 
Queen and Mortimer contrived to get all power into 
their own hands. The reign began with a Scottish 
inroad. Mounted on rough galloways, each man 
carrying at his saddle his supply of oatmeal and a 
flat stone to bake it on, the Scots scoured the 
northern counties, burning villages and lifting cattle, 
while young Edward and his fine army toiled vainly 
after them, never able to bring them to a battle, 
often unable even to learn where they were. The 
Scots went laughing home, and the next year the 
English rulers made a peace, March 17, 1328, by 
which they were thought to have sacrificed the young 
King's rights, as they gave up the claim to feudal 
superiority over Scotland. Hence arose a strong 
feeling against the Queen and Mortimer, to whom the 
peace was ascribed. Mortimer, though hated by the 
nobles, beUeved himself to be secure, and so absurdly 
insolent was his conduct that his own son called him 
the " King of Folly." But he had not reckoned upon 
an outburst of spirit on the part of Edward, who was 
now eighteen. The governor of Nottingham Castle, 
where Mortimer was staying, let in, through an under- 
ground passage, a party of Edward's friends, who, 
headed by the King, burst at midnight into the chamber 
where the favourite was holding consultation with his 
advisers, and, regardless of the entreaties of Isabel, 
made him prisoner. The King, now his own master, 
called a Parliament, and Mortimer, being condemned 
by the Peers without a hearing, was hanged at Tyburn, 
Nov. 29, 1330. Isabel passed the rest of her life in 
ward at Castle Rising. 

2. The Hundred Years' War. — On the death 
in 1328 of Charles IV., Edward had put in a claim 
to the crown of France in right of his mother ; but the 
French maintained that no right coala pas» through 



io6 EDWARD IIL [chap. 

women, who by a custom supposed to be founded on 
the ancient " Salic Law " were shut out from the 
throne. Nothing came of this claim until the 
actual King, Philip of Valois, by encroaching in 
Aquitaine, and by supporting the Scots in their 
hostilities, roused Edward into setting it up again, and 
entering upon the " Hundred Years' War" so called 
because, though there was not constant fighting, there 
was no lasting peace during all that time. Edward at 
first formed foreign alliances, especially with the 
Flemish cities, but afterwards made war alone. His 
first great victory was a sea-fight off Sluys^ June 24, 
1340; and after six years more of alternate war and 
truce, he gained the famous battle of Crky, Aug. 26, 
1346. The French far outnumbered the English, but 
they were undisciplined and ill led, and their Genoese 
crossbowmen, whose bowstrings had just been so 
wetted by a shower as to be almost useless, gave 
way before the terrible volleys of the English 
archers. Still there was sharp fighting, and at one 
time Edward, Prifice of Wales, a lad of sixteen on his 
first campaign, was so sorely pressed that a knight 
was sent to his father to beg for reinforcements. 
The King, on learning that his son was neither 
slain nor wounded, refused. " Let the boy win his 
spurs,'* he said (that is, prove himself worthy of knight- 
hood) ; and gallantly they were won. " Fair son," 
said the King at the end of the day, embracing the 
young Prince, ** God give you good perseverance ! 
You are my son, for loyally have you acquitted your- 
self this day ; you are worthy to hold land." King 
Philip, half wild with rage and grief, escaped to 
Amiens. It is said by foreign writers of the time that 
Edward employed cannon or " bombards " in this 
action, and with good effect. Edward then proceeded 
to blockade by sea and land the town of Calais, 
wrhich he starved into a surrender. The story goes 
that he would only spare the people, whom he hated 



xix.] THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. 107 

as pirates, on condition that six principal burgesses, 
bareheaded, barefooted, and with halters about theii 
necks, should bring liim the keys of the town, and 
give themselves up at discretion. " On them," he said, 
" I will do my will." Eustace of St. Pierre^ the richest 
of the townsmen, volunteered to sacrifice himself, and 
his noble example was followed by five others. The 
King seemed determined to have their heads struck 
off ; even Walter of Mauny^ one of his bravest knights, 
was silenced when he pleaded for them. — " Forbear, 
Sir Walter ! " said the King, grinding his teeth, " it 
shall not be otherwise." He only gave way when his 
wife, Philippa of ffainault, fell in tears at his feet, and 
begged their lives. The town, which Edward peopled 
with a colony of English, remained for more than two 
centuries in possession of our country. A truce was 
now brought about by the Pope, Clement VI. During 
Edward'* absence in France, the Scots, taking the 
opportunity of invading England, were defeated near 
Durham. Oct 12, 1346, and their King, JD avid Bruce, 
was made prisoner. Sir Ralf JSIeville^ one of the English 
leaders, reared a cross to mark the battle-field, which 
thence took its name of Nevilles Cross. The tale of 
victories was completed, Aug. 29, 1350, by a sea-fight 
in the Channel with the Spaniards, who had committed 
piracies upon English vessels. The King and the 
Prince took active part in the combat, grappling their 
ships with two of the adversary's, and successfully 
boarding them. Edward now stood at the height of 
his glory. His foreign wars were in many respects 
needless and cruel, but they placed the country 
among the foremost nations of Christendom. The 
EngHsh learned to think themselves born to con- 
quer Frenchmen ; and the licence of plunder and 
the profits made by putting prisoners to ransom were a 
source of attraction to enterprising men in all ranks. The 
spoils of France were to be found in every house, and 
luxury and extravagance increased among all classes. 



Lo8 EDWARD III. [chap 

3. The Black Death. — In 1348 and 1349 a fear 
ful plague called " the Black Death,'' which swept ovei 
Europe, killed, it is believed, more than half the inhabit- 
ants of England. Whole districts were thrown out of 
cultivation, whole parishes depopulated. Labourers, be- 
coming thereby exceeding scarce, w^ere enabled to com 
mand higher wages, though the King and ParHamenl 
vainly tried to force them, by the famous laws called 
\hc Statutes of Labourers, to work for their former hire, 
and forbade them to move from one county to another. 

4. Battle of Poitiers. — The French war was 
renewed in 1355, the chief part being taken by young 
Edward, traditionally known as ^^ the Black Prince'' 
either from the colour of the armour he wore at 
Crecy, or from the terror with which the French 
regarded him. With his English and Gascons, he 
made a savage raid upon Languedoc, " a good land 
and fat," which for years had not known war; and after 
burning, sacking, and putting to ransom, he marched 
back to Bordeaux with horses hardly able to move 
under their loads of plunder. The next year he swept 
into Touraine and Poitou, but this time his small army 
encountered, near /^^///Vrj", a great host led by the French 
King, Joh?i the Good. The battle, which took place 
on the 19th Sept., 1356, began by a band of French 
horsemen charging up a narrow lane, when the Prince's 
archers let fly from behind the hedges and down the 
lane, and at once threw them into confusion. Although 
this first attack failed, the combat was long and 
obstinate ; but in the end the French were over- 
thrown, and their King, fighting gallantly, was taken 
prisoner. With the courtesy of the time, the Prince 
waited upon his royal captive at supper the same 
evening ; and in the following spring, when he entered 
London in triumph, similar respect was paid to 
John's superior rank, he being mounted on a splen- 
didly caparisoned white charger, while his conqueror 
rode by his side on a black pony. 



jox.] PEACE OF BRETIGNY. rop 

5. Peace of Bretigny. — A peace was made at 
Brdigny^ May 8, 1360, under which John was to 
ransom himself for three million gold crowns, and 
Edward gave up his claim to the throne of France, 
but kept Poitou and Aquitaine, besides Calais and 
some other small districts, no longer as a vassal, 
but as an independent sovereign. 

6. The Spanish Expedition. — In 1367, the 
Black Prince, who ruled at Bordeaux as Prince of 
Aquitaine^ took the part of Don Pedro or Peter the 
Cruel, the dethroned King of Castile^ and won him 
back his kingdom by the victory of Navarrete. But 
the thankless Pedro broke his promise of repaying 
Edward's expenses, and the Prince returned to Bor- 
deaux with his health ruined, his temper spoiled, and 
his treasury drained. Against the advice of some of 
his wisest counsellors, he levied a hearth-tax; and as 
the English were already disliked because they " were 
so proud that they set nothing by any nation but by 
their own," the Aquitanian nobles turned to the French 
King, Charles V,, and war broke out again. The 
Prince rallied his ebbing strength, but his last exploit 
— a general massacre of the townsfolk of Limoges, 
which had offended him by treacherously surrendering 
to the French, and which he had retaken — has left a 
stain on his name. After this cruel deed, he returned 
to England. By 1374 hardly anything was left to 

ke English in Aquitaine, excepting Bordeaux and 
Bayonne ; and, wearied with disasters, King Edward 
obtained a truce. 

7. The Good Parliament. — The King's third 
son, John, Duke of Lancaster, called from his birth- 
place John of Ghent or Gaunt, now took the lead at 
home; for the younger Edward was slowly dying, and 
the elder one had become old and feeble. Good 
Queen Philippa was dead, and on^ Alice Ferrers made 
use of the King's favour to interfere with the course 
of justice. The government was wasteful, and the 



no EDWARD III. [chap. 

men whom the Duke appointed unworthy of trust 
Amid these evils, there met, in 1376 a Parliament, 
gratefully remembered by the title of* '^ the Good," 
which, supported by the Black Prince, boldly set 
itself to the work of reform. The Commons, among 
whom the knights of tJu shire took the chief part, 
impeached^ or accused before the Lords, several of the 
Duke's friends, charging them with frauds upon the 
King and with extortion of money, and obtained 
their imprisonment or removal from office. Alice 
Perrers was forbidden, under pain of banishment, to 
meddle in the law-courts. This is the first instance 
of the Commons using this power of impeachment, 
or trying to interfere with the ministers of the Crown. 
On the 8th June, the Prince died ; and great was the 
mourning of the nation for him who had won them 
fame abroad, and striven with his last strength to save 
them from misrule at home. He was buried in Canter- 
bury Cathedral, where his helmet, shield, gauntlets, and 
surcoat embroidered with the arms of England and 
France, still hang above his tomb. After his death 
the Parliament showed itself still more hostile to 
John of Gaunt, who was suspected of aiming at the 
succession to the throne; but as soon as it was 
dissolved, the Duke had everything his own way ; the 
former favourites were recalled ; the foreman or Speaker 
of the knights in the late Parliament was imprisoned, 
and a new Parliament was summoned, which undid 
all the good work of its predecessor. 

8. Death of Edward. — In his last moments at 
Shene, Edward was forsaken by all his servants and 
even by Alice Perrers, after she had robbed him of 
the rings on his fingers. One priest alone came to 
the King's bedside, and Edward, in tears, receiving a 
crucifix from him, kissed it and died, June 21, 1377. 
In after ages his fame stood higher than he deserved. 
Men read of the brilliant victories and feats of arms 
which shed lustre over what was in the long nin a 



xnL] LEGISLATION. Ill 

disastrous war, and they looked back to him as a 
national hero. In his own day, though he was 
admired as a warrior, the people at large never had any 
great love for him. He was unprincipled, selfish, over- 
head in debt, and, like Richard L, he valued England 
chiefly as a source of supplies. His sons were Edward, 
Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall^ who married 
his cousin Joan^ ^^ the Fair Maid of Kent ;"*' Lionel^ 
Duke of Clarence, whose only daughter married 
Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March ; John^ Duke oj 
Lancaster; Edmund of Langley, Duke of York; and 
Thomas of Woodstock^ Duke of Gloucester. This title 
of Dukey the highest in the peerage, was first con- 
ferred by Edward IH. Though the names of duke, 
earl, and other titles of later introduction marked 
degrees of dignity, all Peers were equal in Parliament, 
and the ancient title of earl had long ceased to denote 
the possession of any particular authority or govern- 
ment. In this reign, St. Stephen's Chapel, West- 
minster, was finished. The King founded the Order 
of Knights of the Garter, and rebuilt the greater part 
of Windsor Castle. His chief architect was William 
of Wykfham, afterwards Bishop of Winchester, and 
Lord Chancellor. Wykeham, in the next reign, 
founded New College, Oxford, and also the College 
of Winchester, in which city he himself had been 
educated. 

9. Legislation. — In 1352 was passed the Statute 
of Treasons, which clearly stated what offences 
amounted to high treason. Treason was accounted 
the highest crime known to the law, and the traitor 
forfeited his dignities, lands, goods, and life. A 
statute passed in 1362 forbade purvey a7ice except 
for the personal wants of the King and Queen. 
Thioughout the reigns of the three Edwards, the 
exactions of the royal purveyors, who paid for what 
they took at the lowest rate or not at all, had 
been getting worse and worse In the middle of 



112 EDWARD IIL [CHAP 

ploughing or harvest the husbandman might be forced 
to work and to lend his horses for the service of any 
of the royal household who could use the King's 
name. It was impossible that the common folk 
should have any liking for the King at the news of 
whose coming they made haste to hide away their 
geese and chickens ; and to the abuse of purvey- 
ance may in great measure be attributed the hatred 
felt for Edward II., and the failure of Edward IIL, 
and even of Edward I., to win popularity. Laws 
were passed to restrain the power which the Popes 
exercised over the English Church and clergy; and 
the demand made in 1366 by Pope Urban V. for 
thirty-three years' arrears of John's tribute, was abso- 
lutely refused. 

10. Commerce. — In 1331 Edward took advantage 
of discontents among the Flemish weavers to invite 
them over here, where they settled chiefly in Norfolk, 
Suffolk, and Essex, and brought in the finer manu- 
factures of woollen cloths. The people were so 
jealous of these newcomers that Edward had no 
small trouble to protect them. The wool of England 
was at that time the finest in Europe, and was the 
chief article of export and source of revenue. 

11. John Wycliffe. — In this and the next reign 
lived Joh7i Wyclife^ born near Richmond in Yorkshire, 
a doctor of Oxford, who put forth opinions differing 
on many points, particularly on the Eucharist, from 
the received doctrines, and assailed alike the Begging 
Friars, who, professing to subsist upon alms, had 
become rich and worldly, and the wealthy clergy, his 
idea being that the clergy ought to live in poverty. 
He spread his views abroad by his writings and by 
his " poor priests," disciples whom he sent out to 
preach among the people. His great work was a 
translation of the Bible, made by himself and his fol- 
lowers. John of Gaunt and a party at court for a 
time befriended him, more because they were jealous 



XX.] RICHARD II 113 

of the power of the clergy than from any real 
religious sympathy with him. Although he was at 
last forbidden to teach at Oxford, he remained in his 
rectory of Lutterworth, where he died peaceably in 
1384; many years afterwards his bones were taken 
up and burned as those of a heretic His disciples 
were nicknamed Lollards, 



CHAPTER XX. 

RICHARD II. 

Richard of Bordeaux; the Peasant Insurrection (i) — 
government of Richard; fall of the Duke of Gloucester 
(2) — Henry of Lancaster , his banishment and return 
in arms (3) — capttire, abdication^ and deposition oj 
Richard; Henry raised to the throne (4) — Statute of 
Prcemunire (5) — lajtguage (6) — literature (7). 

I. Richard II., of Bordeaux, 1377-1399. The 
Peasant Insurrection of 1381. — Richard oj 
Bordeaux^ son of the Black Prince, became King at 
the age of eleven. His reign was troublous and un- 
fortunate. Four years after he ascended the throne 
an insurrection broke out among the peasants. The 
growing ideas of liberty and equality, fostered by the 
preaching of the Lollards, and the yoke of villainage 
tended to cause discontent. Till the " Black Death" 
indeed, villainage had not been burthensome, and 
was growing lighter every year. The lords accepted 
money payments in lieu of service ; they were 
often willing to grant or sell enfranchisement; the 
clergy encouraged the setting free of the villain as 
a good work, and the villain who dwelt unclaimed 
for a year and a day in a free borough became free 

I 



j^i4 RICHARD II. [chap, 

In one way or another the mass of villains and serfs 
became practically free hirelings. But the pestilence 
came, and after it the Statute of Labourers, fixing 
wages which the men refused to accept. At theii 
wit's end for labour, the landlor<ls fell back upon 
their half-forgotten rights over the villains, and 
recalled to servitude many a man who had hitherto 
been as good as free. The irritation thus produced 
spread to the lower class of free tenants, who also 
owed burthensome service to their lords ; and the 
ranks of the malcontents were swelled by dissatisfied 
artisans and discharged soldiers. It was the pressure 
of a poll-tax of three groats upon every person above 
fifteen years old which brought about the actual 
outbreak. All who had grievances seemed suddenly 
to have banded together. Here it was the Lollards 
or the Friars that had raised a cry against the clergy ; 
there clergymen stood forth as ringleaders. Jingling 
rimes conveying some hidden meaning carried the 
signal for revolt from shire to shire. Unknown men, 
bearing names or nicknames which marked thero as 
of the same class as their followers— y<^<r^ Straw, 
Wat Tyler, and the like — started up as leaders The 
insurrection began among the peasants of Essex, 
where villainage was the special grievance, and 
thence spread to Kent, where villainage was un- 
known. The revolt there, according to a well- 
known tradition, was partly brought about by the 
tax-gatherer's insulting behaviour to a young girl of 
Dartford. Her father, /'oh?i Tyler, so called because 
he was a tiler by trade, killed the offender on the spot 
with a stroke of his lathing-staff. The Kentish in 
surgents are said to have numbered 100,000 men by 
the time they reached Blackheath, where they were 
harangued upon the equahty of mankind by a pri<?si 
named John Ball, who took as his text the rime : — 

"When Adam delved, and Eve span. 
Who was then a gentleman ? " 



XX.] THE PEASANT INSURRECTION. 115 

This rude army entered London, and breaking open 
the prisons, let the prisoners loose, burned John of 
Gaunt's palace of the Savoy, and the Temple, together 
with its books and records, and butchered all the 
Flemish artisans they could find ; but in their havoc, 
they allowed of no plunder for private profit. '* We 
will not be thieves," they said, as they flung Lancas- 
ter's jewels into the Thames. A large body, mostly 
Essex and Hertfordshire men, withdrew the next 
Jay, young Richard having promised to comply with 
their demands, chief of which was the abolition of 
villainage. But meanwhile another division had 
entered the Tower, and there seized and beheaded 
the Archbishop and Chancellor Simon Sudbury^ and 
six other men. This force, which mainly consisted of 
Kentishmen, remained in arms, and on the morrow, 
June 15, its leader, Walter or '* Wat'' Tyler ^ had an 
interview with the King in Smithfield. Wat is de- 
scribed as behaving insolently, keeping his cap on, and, 
according to one story, laying, his hand on Richard's 
rein ; at all events, the conference ended in his being 
stabbed by the Mayor, Sir William Walworth^ and 
others. The insurgents bent their bows, but Richard 
boldly rode up to them, exclaiming that he himself 
would be their leader. They followed him to the 
fields at Islington, where a considerable force of 
knights and citizens hastened to protect the King ; and 
the rioters dispersed after the promised charters of 
emancipation and pardon had been delivered. In Nor- 
folk the insurrection was put down by Henry Spenser^ 
" the fighting Bishop of Norwich." On the 2nd of 
July, Richard, who indeed could not legally abolish 
villainage without consent of the Lords and Commons, 
annulled the charters he had granted; and throughout 
the country great numbers of the rioters were tried and 
put to death. But though the rebellion was stamped 
out, and the Parliament scouted a suggestion of a 
general enfranchisement, villainage had nevertheless 

I 3 



ii6 RICHARD II. [CHAP 

received a heavy blow. The landlords forbore to 
recall the freed labourers to sisrfdom, they again 
accepted money payments instead of labour, and let 
their lands to leasehold tenants. 

2. Government of Richard. — Richard was 
noted for his beauty ; his abilities were good, and 
he could act on occasion with quickness and daring ; 
but he was wasteful, dissipated, frivolously fond of 
shows and pageants, and violent in temper. Mistrust- 
ing his uncles who had kept him in tutelage as long 
as they could, he promoted and enriched friends 
of his own who were hated as upstarts. In 1388 the 
party against the King, which was headed by his 
youngest uncle Thomas^ Duke of Gloucester, got the 
upper hand ; when exile or death became the lot of 
Richard's friends. The Parliament in which they 
were condemned was known by the epithets of " the 
Wonderful " and " the Merciless." The next year 
Richard, displaying sudden vigour, took the govern- 
ment into his own hands, and for eight years he 
ruled well, though apparently he never really forgave 
those who had taken part in the doings of 1388. His 
first wife, ^^ the Good Queen Anne''^ of Bohemia, who 
seems to have been inclined towards the doctrines of 
Wycliffe, and who was beloved both by her husband 
and by the nation, died in 1394. Two years later he 
married a child of eight years old, Isabel, daughter of 
Charles VI. of France. This step was unpopular, as 
tiie English had no wish to be friends with France, 
and it was strongly opposed by Gloucester; but 
Richard, whose policy was one of peace, desired to 
secure a long truce. The next year, 1397, he had 
his uncle Gloucester seized and hurried off to Calais. 
The governor of that town soon made report that the 
Duke was dead — secretly murdered, as most thought. 
T\it Earl of Arundel, Gloucester's chief ally, was tried 
in Parliament, and beheaded ; his brother, Thoinas 
Arundel^ Archbishop of Canterbury, was banished. 



XX.] HENRY OF LANCASTER. 117 

Richard had now punished his enemies, and in fact 
become an absolute King, his subservient Parliament 
consenting to hand over its whole authority to a com- 
mittee of men supposed to be devoted to him, so that 
there was no check upon him. 

3. Henry of Lancaster. — Of the noblemen 
who had given the King such offence in 1388, two 
only remained — Thomas Mowbray^ Duke of Norfolk, 
and He?i7-y of Bolingbroke, Duke of Hereford, son of 
John of Gaunt. Both had gone over to the King's 
side, and had been taken into favour. In 1398 
Hereford accused Norfolk of having spoken slander- 
ously of the King ; and Norfolk denying the charge, 
the matter was to be decided at Coventry by trial of 
battle. But just as accuser and accused, armed and 
mounted, were about to set upon each other, Richard 
stopped the fight, and rid himself of them both 
by banishing Hereford for ten years, and Norfolk for 
life. John of Gaunt did not survive his son's exile 
many months, and his estates, which should have 
passed to Hereford, were seized by the King. Here- 
ford — Duke of Lancaster as he now was — took advan 
tage of Richard's absence on an expedition to Ireland, 
to return to England. In company with Archbishop 
Arundel, he landed, July 4, 1399, with a few men-at- 
arms, at Ravefispurne, then a seaport on the Humber, 
but which has now long been swallowed by the waves. 
He was at once joined by the Earls of Northumberland 
and Westmoreland, the heads of the great northern 
families of Percy and Neville; and his few followers 
soon swelled to 60,000 men ; while the King's uncle, 
Edmund, Duke of York, who acted as Regent, instead 
of attacking him, ended by espousing his cause. 

4. Deposition of Richard. - Owing to contrary 
wmds, Richard heard nothing from England till a 
fortnight after Henry of Lancaster's landing; and 
when the news arrived he still lingered, irresolute, in 
Ireland At last he landed in Wales, but his troops 



ii8 RICHARD II. [CHAP 

fell off from him; he was deluded into leaving his 
place of refuge. Conway, by the treachery of the Earl 
of Northumberland, who then led him prisoner to 
Flint Castle, where he was handed over to Henry. 
He was brought to London, and there formally 
resigned the crown. The next day, Sept. 30, the 
Lords and Commons met, and voted his deposition 
on the ground of misgovernment. Upon this Henry 
of Lancaster rose, and claimed the crown, as being 
a descendant of Henry HI., and as — so he hinted 
rather than plainly said — actual master of the realm, 
which had been near its ruin through bad government. 
Archbishop Arundel then led him to the throne, on 
which he was placed amid the shouts of the people 
who filled Westminster Hall. 

5. Statute of Praemunire. — In 1393 was passed 
what is commonly called the Statute of PrcEmunire^ 
which enacted that whoever should procure from 
Rome or elsewhere, excommunications, bulls or othei 
things against the King and his realm, should be put 
out of the King's protection, and all his lands and 
goods forfeited. The name oi prcRmwiire, which was 
the first word of the Latin writ by which a man 
was summoned before the King to answer a charge of 
contempt against him, was commonly given to the 
offence of attempting to introduce a foreign jurisdic- 
tion. The penalties of forfeiture and outlawry had 
in the preceding reign been denounced against those 
who sued in foreign courts for matters cognizable 
m the Kmg's court; and the statute of 1393 was only 
one of a number of laws made with the same view of 
restraining the Pope's influence. 

6 Language.— From the twelfth centtiry to the 
reign of Edward HI., we may reckon three written 
languages in use in England : — Lati)i^ common to the 
clergy and the learned throughout Western Christen- 
dom ; French^ the tongue of the nobles and the gentry ; 
and English^ of the people. This la^-t, the native 



XX.] LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 119 

speech, underwent great changes. The Old-English 
ceased tobe written or sj^oken accurately, and fast broke 
up. In John's reign, French, such as is still current in 
the Channel Islands, began to be used instead of Latin 
as the language of public business ; and to this day 
the royal assent to Bills is announced in Parliament 
in the French words Le Roi or La Reine le vmt ; that 
is, the King, or the Queen, wills it. The descendants 
of the Normans, even after they had become English- 
men in feeling, kept up their ancestors' speech in 
addition to that of the country. As a mark of 
gentility, everybody aspired to some acquaintance 
with the fashionable jargon, which grew so corrupt 
that out of England it would hardly have passed for 
French. The fashion spread till it became laughable ; 
and meanwhile a new form of EngHsh, largely infused 
with French, was gaining Court favour. By the 
middle of the reign of Edward III., the rage for the 
foreign speech was dying out ; and in 1362 the use of 
the English tongue was established in the courts of 
law. John Cornwctile^ a master of grammar, is recorded 
as the first to set the fashion of teaching schoolboys in 
their own language instead of in French ; so that by 
1385, says a writer of the time, " in all the grammar- 
schools of England, children leave French and 
construe and learn in English." The common phrase 
of " King s English " probably originally meant the 
standard language of proclamations, cliarters, and 
the like, in contrast to the various dialects of rural 
districts. 

7. Literature. — After the Norman Conquest there 
arose a number of historians, who, being monks or 
clergymen, wrote in Latin. Among the best known 
of this class is William, the monk of Malmesbury, 
patronized by that Earl of Gloucester who figures in 
the wars of Matilda. William's chief works are a 
History of the Kings of England down to Henry L, and 
a later history, which carries the narrative into the 



120 RICHARD II. [chap 

midts of the struggle between Stephen and Matilda. 
To the same Earl of Gloucester was dedicated the 
History of the Britons, by a Welsh priest, Geoffrey o1 
Monmouth. This was a collection of Welsh and 
Breton legends, written in Latin, with an air of historic 
gravity; and the author got the nickname of " Arthur " 
from his glorifying the British Prince of that name. 
Geoffrey furnished the groundwork for metrical 
romances in French and English, and his hero Arthur 
still keeps his place in poetry and fairy-tale. Among 
thirteenth-century historians, the greatest is Matthe7v 
Paris^ a monk of St. Albans, who wrote the history of 
his own time, and is remarkable for the boldness with 
which he expresses the national grievances. Pre-emi- 
nent among scholars of that age is Roger Bacon, who, 
after having studied at the universities of Oxford and 
Paris, became a Franciscan or Grey Friar. He was 
our first great experimental philosopher, and long 
afterwards, when his real merit was forgotten, " Friar 
Bacon" was remembered by tradition as a wizard. 
His writings show that he was marvellously in advance 
of his age, and knew or guessed at many things 
which no one understood for years after him. Thus 
he seems to have known the theory of a telescope, 
though it does not appear that he ever made one. 
The Old- English Chronicle — or rather Chronicles, 
for the work of writing the national annals was carried 
on simultaneously in various monasteries, whose 
events were set down as they occurred — was continued 
in the Abbey of Peterborough as far as 1154, the year 
of Stephen's death, where it breaks off. There were 
English writings in the thirteenth century — political 
songs, romances, metrical chronicles, devotional works 
— which are known to students, but it is not till the next 
century that we meet with any famous names. Among 
these is tliat of Sir John Mandeville, who travelled in 
Tartary, Persia, Palestine, and other lands, and wrote an 
account, dedicated to Edward III., of hisjourneyings. 



KXI.1 HENRY IV. lai 

He tells so many absurd marvels that he has got a 
character for falsehood; but it seems that what he set 
down of his own knowledge was true, and that his 
wild tales were Church legends or reports made by 
others. Langland was the author of a long poem, 
known as the Vision of Piers Plowman^ — a religious 
allegory, which is valuable for its details of the every- 
day life of the people. But the chief poets of the age 
were Geoffrey Chaucer and John Go7ver, who both 
were influenced by the revival of learning in Italy a nd 
by the poets of that nation, and both wrote the new 
English which was in favour at Court, and which 
became our standard language. Chaucer, who in 
genius was far above his friend Gower, was son of a 
vintner in London, and began life as page to the wife 
of Lionel, Duke of Clarence. He was taken prisoner 
and ransomed in the French war, was employed on 
diplomatic missions in Italy and elsewhere, and in 
1386 sat in Parliament as one of the members for Kent. 
He died at Westminster, about a year after Henry 
IV came to the throne. His great poem is the un- 
finished " Cantei'bury Tales^' a series of stories sup- 
posed to be told by a party of pilgrims of various ranks 
and callings, on their way to the shrine of St. Thomas 
of Canterbury. 



CHAPTER XXL 

HENRY IV. 

Henry IV. j the Earl of March (i) — end of Richard (2>— 
Owen Glendower (3) — rebellion of the Percies; battle 
of Shrewsbury (4) — story of the Prince of Wales and 
the Chief fustice (5) — death of Hejiry (6) ; statute 
against heretics; the Lollard martyrs (7). 

I. House of Lancaster. Henry IV., of 
Bolingbroke, 1399-1413. — Hmry was in fact an 



122 HENRY IV. [CHAP 

elected King, but, as has been seen, he put forward a 
claim of right which he rested partly on his descent 
from Henry III. Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March. 
descended from Lionel, Duke of Clarence, elder 
brother of John of Gaunt, was nearer to the throne 
according to the rule of hereditary succession, and in 
the last reign his father had been declared the heir. 
But Edmund was a mere child, and Henry was 
satisfied with keeping this possible rival in honourable 
confinement. 

2. End of Richard. — By the advice of the Lords 
the unfortunate Richard was consigned to secret and 
perpetual imprisonment ; and so secret was it that even 
the place of his captivity was concealed. But a few 
months after Henry's accession, some nobles took up 
arms in the late King's favour ; and not long after 
this attempt had been crushed, Richard's dead body 
was brought from Pontefract Castle to London, where 
it was shown publicly in St. Paul's, and then buned at 
Langley. Some said that he had been killed in prison 
by one Sir Piers Exton and seven other murderers \ 
a more general belief was that he had died of starva- 
tion, either compulsory or voluntary. But the tale 
which gave Henry the most trouble was that the body 
shown was that of another, and that Richard was alive 
in Scotland. 

3. Owen Glendower. — Henry had not been 
long on the throne when the Welsh, by whom King 
Richard had been beloved, rose in arms. They 
found a leader in Qwain Glyndwr or Owen Glendower^ 
a gentleman of Merionethshire, who traced his descent 
from Llewelyn, Prince of Wales, and who had been 
esquire to King Richard. He soon made himself a 
terror to the English on the marches, and, as his fame 
spread, the Welsh scholars from the Universities, and 
the Welsh labourers employed in England, flocked 
to ioin the insurgent chief, against whom Henry led 
his armies in vain. Withdrawing to his mountains 



XXI.] REBELLION OF THE PERCIES. 123 

Glendower left his foes to straggle hopelessly agains* 
wind and wet, and the difficulties of a wild and ragged 
country. 

4. Rebellion of the Percies. — Henry's most 
powerful friends were the Percies — the Earl of Nort- 
humberland, his brother Thomas, Earl of Worcester, 
and his son Sir Henry — the last being a thorough 
" marchman," a warrior of the Northern Borders, who 
had spent his life in foray and battle against the Scots, 
by whom he was nicknamed " Harry Hotspur^' 
because so constantly was he in the saddle, that, as 
the saying was, his spur was never cold. He and his 
father, on the T4th Sept., 1402, won the battle of Ho- 
mildon Hill, near Wooler, against the invading Scots. 
•The victory was gained almost wholly by the archers, 
whose skill may be judged from the fact that the 
Scottish leader, Earl Douglas, though sheathed in 
armour of unusual excellence, received five arrow- 
wounds. But the Percies became discontented, 
chiefly because the King would not, or rather could 
not, repay them what they had spent in warfare and 
in the custody of the Scottish marches. Moreover he 
refused to permit Sir Edmund Mortimer to be ran- 
somed from Glendower, to whom he was captive. 
Mortimer was Hotspur's brother-in-law, but he was 
also uncle to the young Earl of March, and Henry 
was therefore glad to have him out of the way. Being 
thus offended, Mortimer and the Percies, with their 
former foe Earl Douglas, planned to join Glendower in 
an enterprise to win the crown for Richard, if alive, or 
else for the Earl of March. So little did Henry seem 
to suspect the Percies that he was professedly on his 
way to join them in an expedition against the Scots, 
when he learned that Hotspur and Worcester were in 
arms for King Richard and marching for Wales. 
Hurrying westward, he fought an obstinate and bloody 
lattle with them on Hateley Field, near Shrewsbury^ 
July 21, 1403, when Hotspur fell, pierced by a shaft 



T24 HENRY IV. [CHAP 

in the brain, and his followers fled ; Worcester was 
taken, and paid for his rebellion with his life. The 
crafty Northumberland, who had not been present, 
protested that his son had acted in disobedience to 
him, and came off unpunished. He was afterwards 
concerned in a northern revolt in 1405, for taking 
part in which Richard Scrope, Archbishop of York, was 
beheaded ; while the Earl escaped, to be killed in a 
third rebellion. The power of Glendower, who at 
times received aid from the French, was gradually 
broken by Henry y Prince of Wales ; but he never made 
any submission. 

5. The Prince of Wales. — Tradition represents 
the Prince of Wales, when not engaged in war, as 
leading a wild life among dissolute companions. But 
he was so constantly employed, and so highly praised 
in Parliament, that we may suppose some early freak 
to have been exaggerated. There is a story about him, 
not told till more than a century after his death, but 
yet too famous to be omitted. One of his servants, 
it is said, was arraigned before the Chief Justice for 
felony. Young Henry imperiously demanded the 
man's release, and, enraged by refusal, made as if he 
would do some violence to the judge, who thereupon 
ordered him to the prison of the King's Bench for 
contempt. The Prince had the good sense to lay 
aside his weapon and submit to the punishment. His 
father, on hearing of it, expressed his gratitude to 
Heaven for giving him a judge who feared not to 
minister justice, and a son who could obey it. The 
Prince was in fact so popular, that the King, 
whose health had broken down, became afraid of 
being superseded by him. Towards the end of the 
reign the Prince seems to haye taken a leading part 
in the government ; but apparently he had enemies 
who tried to oust him by rousing his father's jealousy, 
and the stories of his wild doings may have been set 
afloat by this paity. 



XXI.] STATUTE AGAINST HERETICS. laj 1 

6. Death of Henry. — King Henry's conscience, 

nre are told, was uneasy as to the manner in which he 
had come by the crown ; and he meditated going on 
a crusade ; but while praying at St. Edward's shrine 
in Westminster, he was seized with a fit, such as he 
was subject to. His attendants carried him into a 
chambei of the Abbot's, called '^Jerusalem,'' which 
remains at this day, and laid him on a pallet near the 
fire. Coming to himself, he asked where he was ; 
and being told, he said that he knew he should die 
there, for it had been prophesied to him that he would 
depart this life in Jerusalem. He lingered there a few 
days, and died, March 20, 14 13, at the age of forty- 
seven. By his first wife, Mary Bohun^ he had four 
sons : Henry ^ Prince of Wales; Thomas^ Duke of 
Clai'ence; John, Duke of Bedford; and Humfrey, 
Duke of Gloucester. His second wife was Joan oj 
Navarre. 

7. Statute against Heretics. — As Archbishop 
Arundel had supported Henry, Henry in return lent 
himself to destroy the Lollards. By a statute passed 
in 1 40 1, persons convicted by the diocesan of here- 
tical opinions, if they refused to abjure, or, after 
abjuration, relapsed, were to be made over to the 
secular authorities to be burned. The first VVyclifiite 
martyr was a clergyman William Sautree^ burned 
in Smithfield, Feb. 12, 1401. For some time the 
Commons went along with the King ; but they were 
jealous of the ecclesiastical power, and, so far as a 
desire to relieve themselves from taxation by throwing 
the burthen upon the wealth of the Church was con- 
::erned, they were all Lollards. As their feefing 
against the higher clergy grew stronger, they demanded 
a mitigation of the statute for the punishment of 
heretics ; to which Henry answered that it ought 
rather to be made more severe. In the midst of 
these disputes, a poor smith John Badby, was picked 
out for the second victim, and burned in the same 



126 HENRY V. [CHAP 

place where Sautree had penshed before him ; the 
Prince of Wales, who was present, vainly endeavouring 
to shake the Lollard's constancy by the offer of life 
and a yearly pension. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

HENRY V. 

Henry V. (i) — Lord Cobham (2) — conspiracy of Cambridgey 
Scrape^ and Grey j renewal of the Hundred Years' 
War; battle of Azincourt (3) — Treaty of Troyes (4) 
— third invasion and death of Henry ; marriage oj 
his widow (5) — Whittington (6). 

I. Henry V., of Monmouth, 1413-1422. — What- 
ever had been the previous life oi Henry of Monmouth^ 
and whether the tradition of his sudden conversion 
be true or no, it is certain that as King he was a man 
of almost austere piety. He had been early trained 
in Welsh warfare, and as a general and a statesman, 
he often displayed the hard and ruthless spirit charac- 
teristic of the fifteenth century ; but he was open and 
fearless, and therefore free from petty suspicion, and his 
natural disposition was generous. He set free the young 
Earl of March ; after some time he restored the son of 
Hotspur to the lands and honours of the Percies ; and 
he had the body of King Richard II. removed and 
buried in Westminster Abbey. A writer, supposed 
to have been an ecclesiastic of the royal household, 
has left us a description of Henry, from which we 
learn that he had a delicate complexion and regular 
features, with thick and smooth brown hair, that his 
forehead was broad, and his frame well-knit and 
vigorous — he could bear almost any amount of fatigue, 
whether on horseback or on foot. 



xxil.] THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. 127 

2. Lord Cobham.— The alarm created by the Lol- 
lards was increasing. Among them were numbered, 
not only those who questioned the generally received 
religious doctrines, but the discontented and revolu- 
tionary also ; and they uttered threatening vaunts as 
to their number and power. Their chief leader, 
under whose patronage unlicensed preachers spread 
over the country, was Sir John Oldcastle^ called Lord 
Cobham. Henry, who had an old friendship for 
Cobham, spent his powers of religious argument, 
backed up by threats, upon him without success. 
Being tried in the Archbishop's court, and adjudged 
a heretic, Cobham was sent to the Tower, from whence 
he escaped, and became a terror to the government, 
which dreaded a Lollard rising under such a leader — 
for he was a tried soldier. There was some mysterious 
midnight meeting of Lollards in the fields at St. 
Giles, which was dispersed by the King, and in which 
Cobham was said to be concerned. After this, he 
lay hid for a few years \ but being then discovered, 
he was put to death as a traitor and a heretic, being 
hung up in an iron chain, and burned by a fire kindled 
below. Whether he was a loyal subject hunted down 
by the priesthood, or a traitor who aimed at being 
president of a Lollard commonwealth, remains matter 
of dispute. 

3. Renewal of the Hundred Years' War. — 
Since the breaking of the Peace of Bretigny, there had 
been sometimes truce and sometimes war with France, 
but never a peace. Henry now resolved on an attempt 
to recover " his inheritance," the time being favour- 
able, as the French King, Charles VI., was insane, 
and the country was torn asunder between rival 
factions. The fulfilment of the Treaty of Bretigny 
Henry could demand with some show of legal right : 
as for Edward's claim upon the crown, such as it was, 
it had descended, not to the House of Lancaster, but 
to the Mortimers. This however was a point too 



laS HENRY V. [chap 

subtle for the minds of the English, who seem to have 
reasoned that since Henry was their King, he must 
needs be King of France too. Rejecting an offer of 
the whole of the ancient Duchy of Aquitaine, Henry 
made ready for war, and was about to embark 
when discovery was made of a plot to set the Earl of 
March on the throne. The conspirators were the 
King's cousin Richard^ Earl of Cambridge^ who had 
married the Earl of March's sister, Lord Sa-ope oj 
Mashanif and Sir Thomas Grey of Heto?i. All three 
were put to death — an unpromising beginning of an 
expedition. However Henry set sail, and landing, 
Aug. 14, 141 5, near Harfieur^ laid siege to the place, 
which yielded to his artiller}'^ and mines in five weeks. 
As his army was thinned by disease, his advisers now 
urged him to return ; but, confident in what he be- 
lieved to be the righteousness of his cause and relying 
i|)on Heaven, he took instead the hazardous resolu 
tion of marching to Calais. On the plain of Azin- 
court, in Picardy, he was confronted by the French 
army. The English, who had suffered much from 
bad weather and scanty fare, betook themselves at 
night to confession and reception of the Sacrament ; 
meanwhile the Frenchmen, if we may believe the 
English report, played at dice for the ransoms of their 
expected prisoners. The battle was fought the next 
day, October 25. The French men-at-arms, in their 
heavy plates ot steel, were crowded together in a 
space so small that they had hardly room to strike, 
and on ground so soft from recent rain that their horses 
could hardly flounder through the mire. On foot, 
unarmoured, some bareheaded and barefooted, the 
English archers came on, and discharged their deadly 
volleys, which threw the first division of the French 
cavalry into confusion. Throwing down their bows, 
the archers fell upon them with sword and bill, and 
though the Prench fought gallantly for two hours 
longer, their fine army, reckoned at from six to ten 



xxn.] TREATY OF TROYES. 139 

times the number of the English, was cut to pieces. 
When the day was nearly won, an alarm was raised 
that the French were about to renew the battle, upon 
which Henry hastily ordered his soldiers to kill their 
prisoners, lest they should aid the enemy — orders 
which were in most cases carried out before the 
mistake was discovered. After the victory, Henry 
sailed from Calais to Dover, and, with his chiel 
captives in his train, made a triumphan-t entry into 
London, amid gorgeous shows and pageants. He 
himself observed a studied simplicity in dress and 
bearing, and, it is said, refused to allow his helmet, 
dinted with many blows, to be carried before him. 

4- Treaty of Troyes. — In July 14 17, Henry again 
invaded Normandy, and won fortress after fortress, 
while the French were occupied with quarrels among 
themselves. Rouen, being starved out after a gallant 
defence, surrendered, and there Henry built a palace 
and held his court. It was however doubtful whether 
he would be able to keep Normandy, when the game 
was unexpectedly thrown into his hands. The greatest 
of the French vassal princes, Ph'l/p the Good, Duke 0/ 
Burgundy^ being blinded by desire to avenge his 
father, who had just been murdered during a con- 
ference with the French King's eldest son Charles, 
turned to the English for aid. He and the French 
Queen Isabel, who took the Burgundian side against 
her son, brought the incapable King to make at 
TroyeSy May 21, 1420, a treaty with the English 
invader, by which Henry obtained the hand of the 
King's daughter Katharine, the regency of the king- 
dom and the succession after King Charles's death to 
the crown, which was to be for ever united with that 
of England. The French King's son Charles — the 
Dauphin, to give him his proper title — who was thus 
disinherited, of course had nothing to do with this 
treaty, under which Henry undertook to carry on war 
against him and his friends. 



130 HENRY V. (CHA? 

5. Death of Henry. — Henry soon afterwards 
returned to England with his new-made Queen; but 
ere long he was recalled to France by the defeat and 
death of his brother the Duke of Clarence in battle , 
SitBaugS'm Anjou against the Dauphin's men and their 
Scottish auxiliaries. On this campaign Henry carried 
with him young King James I. of Scotland, who 
sixteen years ago had been unjustly made prisoner by 
Henry IV., and his presence served as an excuse 
for hanging every captured Scot as a traitor taken 
in arms against his sovereign. By the taking of 
Meaux, Henry became master of the greater part of 
France north of the Loire ; but his career was now 
run. He sickened, and died at Vincennes, Aug. 31, 
1422, maintaining to the end his wonted composure. 
When during his last hours the ministers of religion 
round his bed were by his order reciting the peni- 
tential psalms, he interrupted them at the words 
" Build Thou the walls of Jerusalem," and said that 
he had intended, after effecting peace in France, to 
go to Jerusalem and free the Holy City, This was 
no mere deathbed resolution. Henry had really 
meditated a Crusade, and had sent out a Burgundian 
knight, Gilbert de Lannoy, to survey the coasts and 
defences of Egypt and Syria. This survey was com 
pleted and reported just after the King's untimely 
death. Henry's own people, and especially his 
soldiers, well-nigh worshipped him. His funeral pro- 
cession, from Paris and Rouen to Calais, and from 
Dover to London and Westminster, was more sump- 
tuous than that of any King before him. The sacred 
relics were removed from the eastern end of the Con- 
fessor's chapel in Westminster Abbey to make room 
for his tomb, which was honoured almost as that of a 
saint. Above the tomb there still hang his saddle 
and his helmet. Henry left one son, an infant only 
a few months old, who bore his name. His wido\f 
Katharine afterwards made an ill-assorted match with 



xxiri.] HENRY VI. 13' 

one of her attendants, a Welsh gentleman called 
Owen Tudor, and in course of time their descendants 
— the Tudor line of sovereigns — came to sit on the 
English throne. 

6. Richard W^hittington. — To this period be- 
longed "the flower of merchants," Richard Whit- 
tington, thrice Mayor of London — first undei 
Richard 11. , next under Henry IV., and again under 
Henry V. The familiar tale of " Whittington and 
his Cat " is an old legend, which has been traced 
to a Persian origin. Whittington at any rate had a 
real existence ; he advanced large sums to Henry V. 
for his wars, and was a benefactor to the City of 
London. 



CHAPTER XXIIL 

HENRY VI. 

Henry VI.; the Maid of Orleans (i) — strife among tlu 
nobles; Henry s marriage; murder of Suffolk (2) — 
fack Cad^s rebellion (3) - Wars of the Roses; succes- 
sion cf the Duke of York; his death; Edward oj 
York raised to the throne (4) — county elections (5) 
attainder (6). 

I. Henry VI., of Windsor, 1422 — 1461.— By 
the deaths of Henry V. and Charles VI. within two 
months of each other, the infant Henry of Wifidsor 
became King of England and France ; though in the 
latter country there was a rival King, the Dauphin, 
who reigned at Bourges as Charles VII., and kept up 
the war with John, Duke of Bedford, who was Regent 
of France for his nephew Henry. In 1428 the EngHsh 
began the siege of Orleans, and its fall, which would 
lay the Dauphin's provinces open to them, seemed at 
hand, when France was delivered as by a miracle 



132 HENRY VL [chap. 

From the village of Domremy a peasant girl of sixteen, 
leanne Dare by name, or, as she is commonly called 
in English, Joan of Arc^ came to Charles, declaring 
herself sent by Heaven to raise the siege of Orleans 
and to conduct him to Rheims for his coronation. 
Rheims, the crowning-place of the French Kings, was 
then in the English power. Mounted and armed like 
a knight, Joan led a force to Orleans, and with a 
handful of men succeeded in entering the city. From 
thence the French made assaults upon the forts with 
which the besiegers had surrounded the place. Though 
her hand never took a life, " the Maid " was foremost in 
battle, and received an arrov/- wound while mounting 
a scaling-ladder to the attack of one of the forts. It 
was not long before the EngUsh commander, William 
de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, had to raise the siege ; and 
thenceforth the stout English soldiers quailed before 
the " Maid of Orleans.^' Her mission in their eyes 
was not from Heaven, but from Hell, and for that 
they feared her all the more. Fresh successes in- 
creased her reputation : the Earl of Suffolk was cap- 
tured at the storming of Jargeau, and John, Lord 
Talbot, one of the best of the English captains, en- 
countering her, June 1 8, 1429, at Patay, was defeated 
and taken prisoner. As she had promised, Charles 
VII. was crowned at Rheims. But in the next year, 
while making a sally from the besieged town of 
Compibgne, she was taken prisoner by the Burgun- 
dians, who sold her to the English, Charles never so 
much as offering to ransom her. The English Council 
delivered her to be tried at Rouen on charges of 
heresy before an ecclesiastical court presided over by 
Peter Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais; and French 
churchmen lent themselves to her destruction. Con- 
demned as a heretic, the heroic Maid was burned 
alive in the market-place of Rouen, May 30, 1431, 
a victim to the ingratitude of her friends and the 
brutality of her foes. But she had awakened the 



xxiii.] END OF THE HUNDRED YEARS* WAR 133 

spint of France, and the English began to lose ground. 
The Duke of Burgundy in 1435 ™ade peace on 
his own account with France ; in the same year the 
Regent Bedford died, and gradually both the in- 
heritance of Henry II. and the subsequent conquests 
were lost past recovery. In 1452 indeed the people 
of Aquitaine and Gascony, and especially those of 
Bordeaux, which had capitulated to Charles in the 
previous year, sought to return to the milder govern- 
ment of the English King. But the veteran Talbot, 
now Earl of Shrewsbury, who was sent to their aid, 
was overthrown the next year in a rash attack upon 
the French array before Castillon. His front ranks 
were mowed down with artillery, the remainder were 
worsted hand to hand, and Talbot was slain as 
he lay wounded on the field. Bordeaux, which held 
out until every other stronghold had yielded, was 
forced again to surrender to the French. To England 
nothing was left but Calais, with its surrounding 
territory, and the barren title of King of France ; and 
thus ended the Hundred Years' War. 

2. Government in England. — Meanwhile in 
England there had been nothing but jealousies and 
struggles among the great men. First, Henry's uncle, 
Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester, who was Protector 
during the King's early childhood, strove for the 
master)- with Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester^ 
and afterwards Cardi?ial. Beaufort saw that it would 
be best to make peace, while " the Good Duke Hum- 
frey," as iie was called, was for keeping up the war. 
King Henry, gentle and of weak intellect, had little 
more authority as a man than he had had as a child, and 
after his marriage in 1445, ^is wife Margaret and her 
favourite counsellor, Xhe Marquess (late Earl) of Suffolk, 
had the chief power. Margaret was the daughter of 
Reni, nominal Duke of Anjou and King of Sicily, 
and brother in-law of the French King. The match 
was negotiated by Sufifolk, in hopes that it would 



r34 HENRY VI. [chap 

lead to the lasting peace desired by King Henry ; 
and, as its price, he consented to surrender Anjou and 
Maine. Such terms were not likely to be acceptable 
to the nation, though its murmurs did not become 
loud till after the death of Duke Humfrey in 1447, 
Suffolk had secretly iccused the Duke of treasons 
and the popular suspicion was that he had procured 
his murder. Maine was not given up till the French 
sent an army into it ; and when loss after loss befell the 
English arms in France, the indignation against the 
minister who thus misconducted affairs rose to fury. 
At last in 1450, the Duke (as he now was) of Suffolk 
being impeached in Parliament, the King, to satisfy 
the people, ordered him to leave England for five 
years ; but his enemies would not let him escape so 
easily. He was intercepted at sea by a vessel called 
che Nicolas of the Tower, and his head was struck off. 
3. Jack Cade's Rebellion. — The murder of the 
Duke of Suffolk was followed by an insurrection of 
the people of Kent under one John or Jack Cade, 
who called himself by the more dignified name of 
fohn Mortimer, professing to be a kinsman of the 
Duke of York, whose mother was a Mortimer. The 
insurgents, to the number of 20,000, encamped 
on Blackheath, and from thence sent to the King a 
statement of their grievances — the maladministration 
of the government, the evil counsellors of the King, 
the oppressive action of the Statute of Labourers, 
the extortions of the sheriffs, the interference of the 
great men with the freedom of county elections, and 
sundry other matters. Sir Humfrey Stafford, pur- 
suing the insurgents to Sevenoaks, was there defeated 
and slain ; after which the King's army, which at 
neart sympathized with the insurgents, broke up, and 
the Kentish captain, whose forces were swelled by 
bands from Sussex, Surrey, and Essex, entered London 
unresisted. Gallantly arrayed like a lord or a knight, 
be rode through the streets to London-stone, which 



xxm.] WARS OF THE ROSES. 135 

he struck with his sword, saying, " Now is Mortimei 
lord of this city." Getting Lord Saye^ one of the 
King's most obnoxious ministers, into his power, he 
had him beheaded in Cheapside. Saye's son-in-law, 
William Crowmer, sheriff of Kent, who was accused 
of extortion, underwent the same fate. For three 
days Cade was master of the city ; but the plundering 
of some houses turned the citizens against him, and 
with the aid of soldiers from the Tower they defended 
London Bridge against his re-entry, he being then on 
the Southwark side. After fighting all night upon 
the bridge, most of his followers dispersed on the 
consent of the Council to receive their petition, which 
had before been refused, and upon the grant of 
pardon. Cade, who remained in arms, in the end 
fled into Sussex, and being pursued and taken by 
Alexander I den, the new sheriff of Kent, received a 
mortal wound in the scuffle. 

4. The Wars of York and Lancaster, or of 
the Roses. — There was now a contest for power 
between the Dukes of Somerset and of York. Ed- 
mund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, was the represen- 
tative of an illegitimate branch of the House of Lan- 
caster. Richard IL had indeed, with the assent of 
Parliament, conferred upon the Beauforts the rights 
of lawful birth, but there was a doubt whether they 
and their descendants were not still debarred from 
succeeding to the throne. Somerset was the favourite 
at Court, but the loss of Normandy, where he had 
been governor, being laid to his charge, he was dis- 
liked by the people. Richard Plantagenet, Duke of 
York, was the son of the Earl of Cambridge who 
had been beheaded in the last reign, and he in- 
herited, through his mother th^ heiress of Mortimer, 
the claim of the line of Clarence upon the crown. As 
Regent of France and Lieutenant of Ireland, he had 
shown high abilities ; his name was ever in the mouths 
of the discontented, and his exclusion from the King's 



136 HENRY VI. [CKAP. 

councils had for some time been £, ground of com- 
plaint. In 1454, the King having become imbecile, 
the Lords in Parliament made the Duke of York 
Protector; but within a year Henry recovered the 
small faculties with which nature had endowed him, 
and Somerset was again in the ascendant York, 
supported by the two Richard Nei'illes, Earls, the one 
of Salisbury, and the other of Warwick, then took up 
arms, and overthrew and killed his rival in the battle 
of St. Albafis, May 22, 1455. There was a hollow 
peace for a time, but in 1459 ^i^il strife again broke 
out. These contests are called the Wars of the 
Roses, because the badge of the House of Lancaster 
was a red rose, and that of the House of York a 
white one. At first things went ill for York, who 
fled to Ireland, while the Earls took refuge in Calais, 
of which town Warwick was governor. But the next 
year the Earls came back and gained a complete 
victory at Northampton, July 10, 1460, Henry being 
captured, and his wife and son flying to Scotland. 
In the autumn a Parliament met, in v/hich the Duke 
of York laid before the Lords his claim upon the 
crown. The matter was settled by a compromise. 
Henry was to reign for his life, and Richard of York 
to succeed him, Henry's only son Edward being thus 
set aside. But many nobles still upheld the interests 
of the young Prince, and a Lancastrian army gathered 
together in the North. York, with inferior forces, 
encountering the Lancastrians near Wakefield, was 
completely defeated, himself falling in the fight. With 
him perished his son Edmund, Earl of Rutland, a 
youth of seventeen, who, according to some, was 
killed 'n cold blood by Lord Clifford, in revenge for 
the death of Clifford's father at St. Albans. " Thy 
father slew mine," cried Clifford, as he stabbed the 
youth, " and so will I do thee and all thy kin." The 
Eiarl of Salisbury was captured and put to death, and 
York's head, encircled with a paper crown, was set o** 



XXIII.] EDWARD OF YORK MADE KING. l$^ 

the walls of the city from which he took his title. 
His death was soon avenged in the bloody fight ot 
Mortimei-'s Cross, in Herefordshire, by his eldest son 
Edivard, now Duke of York, who followed up his 
victory by beheading the King's stepfather, Sir Owen 
Tudor, and many other prisoners. Meanwhile the 
northern army, which had been joined by Margaret, 
advanced upon London, defeating on the way, in a 
second battle at S^. Albans, the Earl of Warwick, and 
rescuing the King, whom the flying Yorkists had left 
behind them. But the Queen's army, largely com- 
posed of Border plunderers, wasted time and roused 
hostility by pillaging ; while Edward, joining Warwick, 
boldly marched into London, where, in a council of 
Lords Spiritual and Temporal, he was declared King, 
and his claim being further acknowledged by a meet- 
ing of the citizens and common people, he was en- 
throned in Westminster Hall, March 4, 1461. Thus 
ended the reign, though not the hfe, of the unfortu- 
nate Henry, who is to be remembered as the founder 
of Eton College, and of King's College, Caitibj-idge. His 
wife was the first foundress of Queen's College in that 
University. 

5. County Elections. — In 1429 was passed a 
statute restricting the right of voting in the election 
of knights of the shire. These elections, according 
to the words of the statute, had " of late been made 
by very great, outrageous, and excessive number of 
people * * * of which the most part was of people of 
small substance, and of no value." It was therefore 
enacted that thenceforth the electoral right should be 
confined to freeholders of lands or tenements to the 
yearly value at least of forty shillings. 

6. Attainder. — In these troublous times it became 
the practice for the victorious party to get an Act of 
Attainder passed agiinst its defeated adversaries. In 
legal phrase, a man under sentence of death was said 
to be attaint; and if attaint of hi^h treason^ he at 



138 EDWARD IV. [chap 

once forfeited his lands, he could inherit nothing, and 
transmit nothing to his heir. An Act of Attainder was 
an Act of Parliament attainting a man of treason or 
felony. By this he was placed in the same position 
as if he had been sentenced to death by the ordinary 
process of lav. Thus his lands could be at once seized, 
and he himself be hanged or beheaded when caught. 
The Queen's party set the example by attainting, in 
a Parliament held at Coventry in 1459, the Duke 
of York and his chief adherents. In this case the 
attainted men were safe out of the way, and as soon 
as the battle of Northampton had thrown power into 
their hands, a friendly Parliament reversed the Acts 
of its predecessor. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

EDWARD IV. 

Edward I V.J battle of Towton (i) — efforts of Margaret; 
overthrow of the Lancastrians (2) — marriage oj 
Edward; Clarence and Warwick change sides; re- 
storation of Henry ; return of Edward; battles oj 
Barnet and Tewkesbury ; death of Henry VI.; Richard^ 
Duke of Gloucester (3) — invasion of France (4)- death 
of Clarence; death of Edward ^5). 

I. House of York. Edward IV., 1461 — 1483. 

— Marching to the North, where the Lancastrian 
forces now lay, Edward completed his triumph by 
the victory of Towton, near Tadcaster. The fighting 
began about four in the afternoon, was continued into 
the night, and was renewed the next morning. Palm 
Sunday, March 29, in the midst of a snowstorm which 
blew in the faces of the Lancastrians. These at 
last gave way, and, quarter having been forbidden, 
the slaughter was great Henry and his family, who 
had awaited within the walls of York the issue of the 



KXiT.j WARS OF THE ROSES. 139 

fight, escaped to Scotland. The conqueror soon re- 
turned to Westminster to be crowned and to hold his 
first Parliament, which passed Acts of forfeiture and 
attainder, including the late King, his wife and son, 
and all who had been active in their cause, from dukes 
and earls down to yeomen and tradesmen. The new 
FCing, who was about nineteen at his accession, passed 
for the most accomplished, and until he grew un- 
wieldy, the handsomest man of his time. He had 
the art of making himself popular ; but he was blood 
thirsty, unforgiving, and licentious. 

2. Overthrow of the Lancastrians. — For 
three years Margaret and her friends, flitting between 
England, Scotland, and the Continent, maintained a 
fitful struggle in the North. A foreign chronicler of 
the time tells a story that during her wanderings 
Margaret fell among thieves, and was plundered of all 
she had. While they quarrelled over their booty, she 
escaped with her young son Edward into the depths 
of the forest. There she was met by another robber, 
to whom, in desperation, she presented the boy, 
saying, " Here, my friend, save the son of thy King." 
The outlaw's generosity was touched, and he led them 
to a place of safety. The Lancastrians were at last 
crushed for a time by the defeats of Hedgeley Moor, 
near Wooler, and Hexham^ where the Duke of Somerset , 
son of the rival of Richard of York, was taken 
and beheaded. King Henry, after this last defeat, 
lay for more than a year hidden in Lancashire and 
Westmoreland ; but he was finally betrayed and 
brought prisoner to the Tower. The ascendancy of 
the White Rose brought great suffering upon the 
Lancastrians, their lands being made over to Yorkists, 
and themselves reduced to exile and poverty. Henry 
Holland^ Duke of Exeter, concealing his name, is 
known to have followed the Duke of Burgundy's train 
barefoot, and begging from door to door. 

3. W^ars of the Roses Renewed — In the 



140 EDWARD IV. [chap. 

autumn of 1464, Edward avowed his marriage with 
Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Wydevile, Lord 
Rivers, and widow of Sir John Grey, a Lancastrian. 
Her beauty, according to the common tale, won his 
heart when she was a suppHant to him for the 
restoration of her late husband's estates. Honours 
and riches were showered upon her kindred — father, 
brother, sisters, sons — with a profusion which offended 
the old nobility, and especially the Earl of Warwick 
and his brothers, Warwick, desiring an alliance with 
France, had planned that Edward should marry the 
French King's sister-in-law, while Edward's new 
advisers preferred the friendship of the Duke of 
Burgundy, Charles the Bold, who in 1468 married the 
English King's sister Margaret. The Burgundian 
alliance was well-pleasing to the London merchants 
who traded with the Duke's subjects in the Nether- 
lands, but not so to Warwick, who hated Duke 
Charles. Warwick was not a man who could be 
safely provoked. He was exceeding wealthy, his hos- 
pitality endeared him to the people, and he could raise 
an army at his word. In his various mansions 30,000 
people are said to have been daily fed. and when he 
stayed in London, whoever had any acquaintance in his 
household might come and take as much meat as he 
could carry oif on a dagger. To aid him in his 
schemes against the King, Warwick drew over Edward's 
brother George, Duke of Clarence, to whom he gave his 
daughter Isabel in marriage An insurrection in York- 
shire was fomented by the Earl with such success that 
for a short time Edward was a prisoner in the hands of 
his over-powerful subject. But the King soon escaped or 
was let go ; and the failure of a second revolt in 1470 
obliged Warwick and his son-in-law to fly into France 
Ere long they returned, and proclaimed King Henry ; 
for at the French court Warwick had become recon- 
ciled to his old foe Queen Margaret, and had married 
his daughter Anne to her son Edward. The people 



itxiv.] WARS OF THE ROSES. 14I 

gathered to Warwick in crowds and it was now Kino; 
Edward's turn to fly the country ; while his wife took 
refuge in the Sanctuary at Westminster, where she v^as 
protected by the religious feeling of the age ; and 
Henry was replaced on the throne. Edward found 
shelter in the dominions of his brother-in-law of 
Burgundy, who privately supplied him with money 
and ships for his return. It was a time of sudden 
revolutions. On the 14th March, 147 1, Edward came 
back with a small force, landing, like Henry of Boling- 
broke before him, at Ravenspume, and with equal 
success. His brother Clarence returned to his side ; 
the citizens readily admitted him into London ; and 
from thence he marched to encounter near Barnet the 
Earl of Warwick and his brother the Marquess of Mont 
acute. The battle began about daybreak on Easter 
Sunday, April 14, in a mist so thick that the combatants 
could scarcely see each other ; and after six hours' con- 
fused fighting Edward gained the victory, Warwick — 
" the King-maker,'^ as historians call him — and Mont- 
acute being both slain. The struggle was not quite 
over, for that same day Queen Margaret landed, and 
on the 4th May her army encountered that of Edward 
at Tewkesbury, where it was utterly defeated, shf 
herself being captured soon after. Her son Edward 
was killed : the common story is that he was brought 
before his victorious namesake, who asked him how 
he durst be so bold as to make war in his realm. 
The youth made answer that he came to recover his 
inheritance, whereupon the King struck him in the 
face with his gauntlet, and the King's brothers, or their 
attendants, forthwith despatched him with their 
swords. The victory was followed up by the behead- 
ing of Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset — the third 
of that title who had perished in these wars — and 
many other prisoners. King Henry, who had been 
again imprisoned in the Tower, died shortly after — ol 
a broken heart, as the Yorkists said, or murdered, 



X42 EDWARD IV. [CHAV. 

according to Lancastrian rumonr, by Edward's 
youngest brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester. Queen 
Margaret, after four years' captivity, was ransomed b) 
King Louis XI. of France, and died in her own country 
of Anjou. Anne Neville, widow of the slain Prince 
Edward, married the Duke of Gloucester, who is 
known to us by the nickname of " Crookback 
Richard," and as one of the greatest of villains. Am- 
bitious and unscrupulous he certainly was ; but as the 
detailed accounts of him were written after his death, 
and in the interest of his adversaries, we cannot 
depend upon them, even in so small a matter as the 
crook in his back. The truth as to his appearance 
seems to be that he was a small, slight man, with one 
shoulder rather higher than the other. 

4. Invasion of France. — Having nothing else 
to do, the King determined on the renewal of the 
claim to the French crown. Not satisfied with the 
large sums which Parliament readily granted to him 
for this object, but still not venturing to levy taxes or, 
nis sole authority, Edward obtained from wealthy men. 
who did not know how to refuse the King's requests, 
additional sums under the name of ^^ benevole?ices'' 
because they were supposed to be gifts offered out o\ 
good-will. Everyone gave, as was remarked, "what 
he was willing, or rather what he was not willing, to 
give." The invasion however came to nothing. The 
crafty Louis XT., who did not want to fight, per- 
suaded his enemy to go quietly home in consideration 
of receiving a large annual pension — a tribute, as the 
English chose to call it — and, to the disgust of 
Edward's soldiers, a truce for seven years was made 
in August, 1475, ^-t Picquigny, near Amiens. 

5. Death of Edward. — The House of York 
now seemed firm upon the throne, but it was a house 
divided against itself. The Duke of Clarence was 
again at enmity with his royal brother, to whom in 
1478 he gave offence which led to his committal 



xxv.l EDWARD V. 143 

to the Tower. Edward, himself appearing as accuser, 
impeached him of treason before the Peers, who 
found him guilty. About ten days later it was given 
out that the Duke had died in the Tower — how 
was never certainly known, but a wild story flew about 
that he had been drowned in a butt of Malmsey 
wine. Edward himself died April 9, 1483, leaving 
two sons, Edward^ Prince of Wales^ and Richard, 
Duke of York; one twelve, the other ten years 
old. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

EDWARD V. 

Edward V.j seizure of power by the Dukes of Gloucester 
and Buckingham {v)— beheading of Lord Hastings; 
the Duke of Gloucester raised to the throne (2). 

I. Edward V., April 9 — June 22, 1483. Pro- 
tectorate of Gloucester. — Edward V, reigned 
less than three months, and was never crowned. At 
the time of his father's death he was living at Ludlow 
Castle, surrounded by his mother's kinsmen and 
friends. But on his road to London, he was over- 
taken at Stony Stratford by his uncle Richard, Duke 
of Gloucester^ who had come up from the North, and 
by Henry Stafford^ Duke of Buckingha^n, the chiefs 
of the party opposed to the Wydeviles. These two, 
by a sudden stroke of treachery and violence, arrested 
four of the young King's retinue — his mother's brother, 
Earl Rivers, his mother's son. Lord Richard Grey, 
and two gentlemen of his household — whom they 
sent prisoners into Yorkshire ; and, ordering the 
rest of '4he royal train to disperse, they, with their 
own followers, brought the King to London. The 
poor boy, seeing his friends thus taken from him- 



144 EDWARD V, [chap. 

** wept and was nothing content, but it booted not." 
The Dukes accused Rivers and the Greys of a 
design to usurp the government; and the fact that 
large store of armour and weapons was found among 
the baggage of the royal attendants was generally 
thought to justify the arrests. The Queen-Mother, 
as soon as she heard what had happened, fled with 
her youngest son Richard, Duke of York, and her 
five daughters, to the Sanctuary at Westminster. 
The King was lodged in the Tower, then a palace 
as well as a fortress and a prison ; and the Duke 
of Gloucester was appointed Protector. 

2. Deposition of Edward.— So far, Gloucester 
and his supporters had been united by a common 
hatred of the Wydeviles ; but it is plain that they 
now disagreed among themselves. Lord Hastings in 
particular, who had been a bitter enemy of the 
Queen's friends, seems to have repented, and to 
have secretly gone over to their side. On June 13, 
by order of the Protector, Hastings was seized at 
the council-board in the Tower, and put to death 
out of hand. " By St. Paul," the Protector was re- 
ported to have said, " I will not to dinner till I see 
thy head off;" and a log of wood which lay on the 
Tower Green served as a block for the hurried 
execution. The sime afternoon proclamation was 
made that Hastings and his friends had conspired to 
murder the Dukes of Gloucester and Buckingham. 
Rivers, Grey, and their two fellow-prisoners were, 
without trial, beheaded at Pontefract. The little 
Duke of York was removed from his mother in the 
Sanctuary to join his brother in the Tower, and thus 
Gloucester had both his nephews in his hands. On 
Sunday, June 22, Dr. Ralf Shaw, a preacher of some 
note, and brother to the Mayor of London, prearhed a 
sermon at PaiiVs Cross — a cross and pulpit which then 
stood at the north east corner of St. Paul's Churchyard 
— setting forth that the children were illegitimate on the 



XXYI.] RICHARD ni. I4S 

ground that when their father married Elizabeth 
Wydevile, he was under a precontract to marry 
another woman. According to the ecclesiastical law, 
this would m-ake his marriage with Elizabeth void. 
The Lord Protector was pointed out by the preacher 
as the rightful inheritor of the Crown. The claim 
thus first put forward was accepted by an assembly 
of Lords and Commons, which was practically a 
Parliament, though owing to some informality it was 
not afterwards allowed that name; a deputation of 
lords and knights, joined by the Mayor, aldermen, and 
chief citizens, desired the Protector to take upon him 
the royal dignity ; and on June 26, the Duke of 
Gloucester sat in Westminster Hall as King Richard 
III. of England. 



CHAPTER XXVL 

RICHARD III. 

Richard III.; disappearance of the sons of Edward 

(i) — the Earl of Richmond; beheading of Buckingham 
(2) — legislation (3) — death of Anne; invasion of 
Richmond; battle of Bosworth; fall of Richard (4) 
— printing (5) — literature (6). 

I. Richard III. , 1483 —1485. — Richard zx^^ Anne 
his wife were crowned at Westminster, July 6, 1483, 
the preparations which had been made for the corona- 
tion of the nephew serving for those of the uncle. 
The new King then set out for York, where he and 
the Queen, with crowns upon their heads, walked 
through the streets in a grand procession. He was 
already liked in the North, where he had lived foi 
some time ; and all this display was designed to 
increase his popularity. But while he was thus 

L 



146 RICHARD III. [chap. 

spending his time, there arose much murmuring in the 
south and west at the captivity of Edward's sons ; 
and at last Buckingham, hitherto Richard's staunch 
ally, seems to have undertaken to head a rising for 
their release. At this moment it was reported that 
the children were no longer living. In the next reign, 
it was stated that Sir James Tyrrel2Xi^ John Dighton 
had confessed that on the refusal of Sir Robert 
Brackenbury, Constable of the Tower, to put his 
young prisoners to death, Richard had bidden that 
the keys of the Tower should be delivered to Tyrrel 
for twenty-four hours, and that Tyrrel's groom Dighton, 
together with one Miles Forrest, had smothered the 
sleeping children in their bed, and then buried them 
at the stair-foot. It was further rumoured that by 
Richard's desire a priest of Brackenbury's household 
had removed the bodies elsewhere. Some however 
have doubted the murder, notwithstanding the ap- 
parent confirmation of the popular belief by a dis- 
covery made 191 years later of the bones of two 
boys, of about the age of the young princes, lying 
buried in the White Tower under the staircase leading 
to the chapel. The reigning King, Charles II., had 
them removed to Henry the Seventh's Chapel as the 
remains of Edward V. and Richard, Duke of York. 

2. Revolt of Buckingham. — The league now 
formed against Richard consisted of Buckingham, 
many old Lancastrians, and the Marquess of Dorset, 
Elizabeth Wydevile's son, with others of the Wyde- 
vile party, acting in concert with Henry Tudor, Earl 
of Richmond, who on his father's side was a grandson 
of Owen Tudor and Katharine, widow of Henry V., 
and on his mother^s a descendant, through the Beaufort 
line, of John of Gaunt, and who, in the absence of 
any better representative of the House of Lancaster, 
was accepted as its head. To unite the Yorkists and 
Lancastrians, it was agreed that he should marry 
Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV. Richmond was 



;cxvi.) OVERTHROW OF RICHARD. 147 

then a refugee in Britanny, and the present revolt did 
not better his position ; for Buckingham, deserted by 
his followers, was betrayed, and beheaded at Salis- 
bury ; the other confederates dispersed ; and Rich- 
mond, whose fleet had been scattered by a storm, did 
not venture to land. A few of those concerned in the 
revolt were put to death ; among these was, if we may 
believe the common tale, one Collingbourne, who 
had made a couplet upon Richard and his three most 
trusty friends, Ratcliffe, Catesby, and Lord Lovel : — 

** The Rat, the Cat, and Lovel our Dog, 
Rule all England under the Hog." 

Richard's favourite badge was a wild boar, and the 
popular belief was that the rimer lost his head for 
thus insulting him. Henry's mother Margaret Beaufort^ 
Countess of Richmond^ who had been the moving 
spirit of the rebellion, was leniently treated out of 
consideration for her third husband Lord Stanley, of 
whose loyalty Richard thought himself assured. 

3. Legislation. — In January, 1484, a ParHament 
was held, by which a statute was passed forbidding the 
exaction of " benevolences." Another Act, while 
laying restrictions upon foreign traders, expressly 
excepts from its operation trade in books "written or 
printed," which were allowed to be brought in and 
sold by men of any nation. The statutes of this reign 
were the first ever printed. 

4. Overthrow and Death of Richard. — In 
April, 1484, died the King's only c\(M. Edward, where- 
upon Richard declared his sister's son, John de la 
Pole, Earl of Lincoln, his heir. In the next year, 
Queen Anne died, broken down by sorrow for the 
loss of her son, or, as Richard's enemies afterwards 
chose to suggest, of poison given by her husband. 
In after days, men told how Richard was haunted 
by the memory of his murdered nephews ; he knew 
no peace of mind, his hand was ever on his dagger, 

L a 



.48 RICHARD III. [chap 

his rest broken by fearful dreams. Whether he was 
troubled by imaginary dangers or not, he had a real 
one in Richmond, who had lately bound himself by 
oath, if he obtained the crown, to marry Elizabeth 
of York, and had thus taken a great step towards the 
union of Yorkists and Lancastrians. On August 7, 
1485, Richmond, with a body of adventurers, mostly 
Normans, landed at Milford Haven, and, advancing 
into the country, was met by Richard, with an army 
double in number. A story is told that John Howard^ 
Duke of Norfolk^ received a warning, which however 
he disregarded, against supporting the King. It was 
in two lines written on the gate of the house where 
he lodged : — 

*' Jack of Norfolk, be not too bold. 
For Dickon thy master is bought and sold." 

This was true enough ; for Lord Stanley, who could 
muster many followers in Cheshire and Lancashire, 
had, while holding office under Richard, secretly 
promised his support to Richmond. Stanley to the 
last moment delayed declaring himself, because his 
eldest son was in the hands of the King, who, his 
suspicions being now awakened, threatened that the 
son should die if the father played false. Henry 
Percy ^ Earl of Northumberland^ though he brought the 
forces of the North to the royal muster, was likewise 
at heart disaffected to Richard. When the battle 
began near Market Bosworth, Aug. 22, Lord Stanley 
in the midst of the encounter joined Richmond, while 
Northumberland looked on without stirring a foot. 
"Jack of Norfolk," true to his master, fell fighting 
gallantly; and as a last effort, the King made a 
desperate charge upon Richmond's body-guard. Cleav- 
ing the skull of one knight and unhorsing another, 
he cut his way to his rival, when Sir William 
Stanley^ who had hitherto held aloof, brought up his 
followers to Richmond's rescue, and Richard, crying 



VI.] PRINTING. US 

" Treason I treason ! " fell overpowered by numbers 
The crown which had been struck from his helme*. 
was picked up on the field, and set by Lord Stanley 
on the head of Richmond, who was hailed King, 
Richard's body was thrown across a horse, and carried 
to the Grey Friars' Church at Leicester, where it was 
buried with scant ceremony. 

5. Printing. — Troublous as was the fifteenth cen- 
tury, it was an age of increasing interest in literature 
and art. Princes and nobles began to take pride in 
forming libraries, and encouraging the labours of 
authors, copyists, and illuminators. Some hundreds 
of books were given by the " Good Duke Humfrey " 
to the University of Oxford. A missal executed for 
his brother the Duke of Bedford still remains as one 
of the choicest productions of its age. Henry VI. 
had a valuable library, many of the manuscripts 
belonging to which are to be seen in the British 
Museum. But so long as books could only be multi- 
plied in manuscript they were of necessity both scarce 
and dear. The monks were at first copyists as well 
as authors, but after a while copying became a trade, 
and books grew somewhat cheaper. Under Edward 
IV. the charge of a copyist was twopence a leaf for 
prose and a penny for verse of about thirty lines to 
the page. Adding the price of the paper, we may 
reckon that a good copy of a prose work cost, at the 
present value of money, about two shillings a leaf. 
Paper had begun to take the place of parchment 
about the middle of the fourteenth century. But in 
the reign of Edward IV. a great invention was intro- 
duced, which put an end to this laborious copying 
About i476, William Caxfon, a native of the Weald 
of Kent, who had learned the new art of printing 
abroad — at Bruges, it is supposed, where he had 
been a merchant — came home, and set up a printing- 
press in Westminster. He had been in the service 
of the Duchess Margaret of Burgundy, for whom he 



I50 RICHARD III. [CHAP 

had translated a French romance; and he now re» 
ceived countenance from King Edward and his court 
The Queen's brother, the accomplished Anthony 
WydeviU^ Earl Rivers^ translated for Caxton's press 
a French work, " The Dictes and Sayings of the Phi- 
losophers." Caxton also printed a translation from 
Cicero, which had been made by John Tipioft, Earl oj 
Worcester^ the foremost of the literary nobles of the 
day. Worcester, who was a Yorkist, had got a name for 
cruelty, and the Lancastrians rejoiced when, during the 
brief restoration of King Henry in 1470, he was brought 
to the block ; but Caxton only remembered him as a 
scholar. "The axe," he wrote mournfully, " then did 
at one blow cut off more learning than was left in tht; 
heads of all the surviving lords and nobility." Caxton 
died about 1491. 

6. Literature. — Notwithstanding the growing 
interest in literature, the fifteenth century did not give 
us any very famous writers. John Lydgate^ a monk 
of Bury St. Edmund's, who flourished in the reign 
of Henry VI., though not a man of much genius, was 
a favourite poet in his day. Reginald Fecock, Bishop 
of Chichester, in the same reign wrote in defence of 
the Church against the Lollards, but, being adjudged 
to have himself fallen into heresy, was obliged to 
burn his books publicly at Paul's Cross, and was 
deprived of liis bishopric. Sir John Fortescue^ Chief 
Justice of the King's Bench, wrote for the instruction 
of King Henry's son Edward, to whom he was governor, 
1 Latin treatise upon the laws of England. In this he 
impresses upon his pupil that the kingly power in 
England is not absolute, but limited, and that the 
country owed its prosperity to its freedom. The 
Morte Darthur, or Death of Arthur^ a fine prose 
romance, or rather collection of romances, about 
Arthur and his knights, founded upon French fictions, 
was composed by Sir Thomas Malory, and printed 
m 1485 by Caxton. In the prefiice Caxton tells 



xxvi.] LITERATURK ly 

US how he had been ofttimes urged by " many 
noble and divers gentlemen " to print the history 
of King Arthur, " which ought most to be remem- 
bered amongst us Englishmen tofore all other Chris- 
tian Kings" — so completely had the British Arthur, 
turned by romance-\vriters into the likeness of a 
thirteenth or fourteenth-century King, become the 
hero of those EngHsh against whose ancestors he had 
fought. Jidyans or Juliana Berners, said to have 
been prioress of Sopewell nunnery near St. Albans, 
was the authoress of treatises upon hunting and 
hawking. Towards the close of the century some of 
the popular ballads began to be printed. The spirited 
ballad of Chevy Chase, which recounts a fierce fray 
between the Percy and Douglas of the days of Henry 
IV., may perhaps belong to the end of the fifteenth 
century, though probably not exactly in the form in 
which we have it. There is another and better-known 
version of the same story, which is more modern still. 
Among ballad heroes, Robin Hood, a legendary captain 
of outlaws and deer- stealers, frequenting Nottingham- 
shire and Yorkshire, stands chief. Whether he had 
any real existence is uncertain, but he was a subject 
for popular song as far back as the days of Edward 
III. In the Vision of Fiers Plowman, one of the alle- 
gorical characters. Sloth, owns that he does not know 
his paterftoster (the Lord's Prayer) perfectly, but he 
does know "rimes of Robin Hood." A series of 
ballads entitled " A Little Geste of Robin Hood," 
'vhich places its hero in the days of some King 
Edward, was printed early in the reign of Henry 
VIII., and shows strongly the growing dislike to the 
higher clergy, whom the bold outlaw is represented as 
making his special prey. 



L58 HENRY Vll. CKAP. 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

HENRY VII. 

Henry Tudor; Yorkist risings , Lambert Simnel (i) — 
foreign affairs (2) — Richard Plantagefiet or Perkin 
Warbeck ; executio7i of Stanley ; surretider of Perkin , 
execution of Perkin and Warwick (3) — marriages oj 
Henry's children (4) — Henry's gov em me fit ; story oJ 
the Earl of Oxford; Empson and Dudley ; death of 
Henry (5) —allegiance to the King de facto (6) — The 
Cabots (7). 

I. House of Tudor. Henry VII., 1485-1509. 

— The coronation of Henry Tudor on the battle-field 
was followed up by a more formal one at Westminster. 
Without entering into questions of title, Parliament 
settled the Crown on Henry and his heirs, and in order 
to unite the rival Roses, pressed him to carry out the 
intended marriage with Elizabeth of York, which he 
vvas supposed to have put off in order that it might 
QOt be thought that he reigned by right of his wife. 
The marriage accordingly took place Jan. 18, i486, 
but it is said that his dislike to the House of York led 
him to treat her with coldness. Another representa- 
tive of that House, youns: Edward, Earl of Warwick, 
son of George, Duke of Clarence, he at once removed 
from Yorkshire, where Richard III. had placed him 
in captivity, to the Tower ; and altogether the King 
showed himself so unfriendly to the Yorkists that 
within a year of his accession they made an attempt 
at revolt, in which Lord Lovel, the " dog," was one of 
the leaders. This was soon quelled ; but the next 
year the Yorkists tried a new plan. A youth appeared, 
asserting himself to be the Earl of Warwick, escaped 
from the Tower. Margaret, the widowed Duchess ot 
Burgundy, d sister of H^dward IV., furnished the Earl 
of Linco' and Lord Lovel with troops to support him 



txvii.] PERKIN WAKL5ECK. 153 

and he was crowned King in Ireland, where the House 
of York had always been beloved. But few joined 
him when he landed in England, and his German 
and Irish army was overthrown by Henry's troops at 
Stoke-upon-Trent, June 16, 1487. The Earl of Lincoln 
and most of the Yorkist leaders fell ; Lovel fled, and 
was never heard of again ; while the pretended War- 
wick, who was one La7nbert Sim?iei, son of a joiner at 
Oxford, was captured, and treated with contemptuous 
mercy, Henry making him a scullion in his kitchen. 

2. Foreign Affairs. — In character Henry was 
cautious, crafty, fond of money, and ingenious in 
acquiring it. Being ever in fear of a pretender to his 
throne, he was anxious for the friendship of foreign 
princes, in order that they might not help rebels 
against him. More especially he sought the alliance 
of Spain, the rival power to France ; and though he 
had no love for war, he joined in 1489 with the 
Spaniards in sending troops to help Britanny, then at 
strife with France. The English being well disposed 
to fight the French, the King got subsidies from Par- 
liament, renewed the extortion of money by " benevo- 
lences," and under a show of war — for he did as little 
as he could — filled his coffers. At last, in 1492, he 
passed over to France, laid siege to Boulogne for a few 
days, made peace, and led his murmuring army back. 
Besides the public treaty there was a private one, by 
which the King of France boimd himself to pay a 
hundred and forty-nine thousand pounds to the King 
of England. 

3. Perkin Warbeck. — Meanwhile a new claimant 
to the throne had appeared, styling himself Richard 
Plantagenet, Duke of York, According to his own 
account, he was the second son of Edward IV., and 
had been saved alvve when his brother Edward V. was 
put to death ; according to Kenry, he was one Fiera 
Osbeck, more commonly called Perkin Warbscky ol 
Tournay ; and people are still in doubt whether he 



154 HENRY VII. [CHAP 

was an impostor or not. He first showed himself in 
Cork, where he was well received ; he then went to 
the French court, and thence to Flanders, where the 
Duchess Margaret of Burgundy received him with 
open arms. The King discovering, by means of spieS; 
that communications were carried on between the 
friends of "Richard of York" in England, and those 
abroad, some executions took place, amongst which 
was that of the Lord Chamberlain Sir William Stanley, 
who had saved Henry's life on Bosworth Field. 
Probably he really was concerned in the conspiracy , 
but the King's known greed of money caused a sus- 
picion that Stanley only suffered in order that his 
enormous wealth might be forfeited to the Crown. 
In 1495 '* Richard " passed into Scotland, where the 
King, /amgs /v., gave him his kinswoman Katharine 
Gordon in marriage. About two years later the adven- 
turer, landing in Cornw^all, was there joined by many 
of the people ; but on the approach of the royal army 
he left his followers, and took sanctuary, surrender- 
ing in a few days on promise that his life should be 
spared. His beautiful wife, "the White Rose," as 
she was called, became an attendant on Henry's 
Queen. For two years " Richard " lived a prisoner; 
once he made his escape, but being brought back, 
was set publicly in the stocks, made to read aloud a 
confession of imposture, and then cast into a dark cell 
in the Tower. In 1499 he and a fellow-captive, the 
Earl of Warwick, who, for no crime but his birth, had 
lain for fourteen years in the Tower, were tnea and 
put to death on charges of high treason. The two 
young men, as was alleged at the Earl's trial, had 
planned escape, after which the adventurer was to be 
again proclaimed as King Richard IV. But the 
report went that the Earl was sacrificed to Henry's 
long-cherished scheme for wedding his son to a 
Spanish princess, whose father, Xin^ Ferdinand oj 
Aragon^ crafty and careful as Henry himself, waf 



XXVII. J MARRIAGES OF HENRY'S CHILDREN. 155 

believed to have said plainly that he did not consider 
the alliance a safe one as long as Warwick lived. 

4. Marriages of Henry's children. — In 1501, 
at the age of fifteen, the King's eldest son, named 
Arthur in memory of the Welsh hero from whom 
Henry claimed descent, was married to Katharine^ 
daughter of King Ferdinand of Aragon, whose power 
extended over nearly the whole of the present Spain. 
But Arthur dying within five months' time, his young 
widow was contracted to the King's second son, 
Henry, a dispensation being obtained from the Pope to 
legalize this union with a brother's wife. With intent 
to cement a peace between England and Scotland, the 
King's eldest daughter Margaret was married in 1503 
to James IV. of Scotland; and this politic alliance 
proved in the end the means of uniting the two king- 
doms of Britain. 

5. Henry's Government. — Under the Tudors 
there came a change over the spirit of the government. 
The tendency now was to make the King all-powerful. 
Mindful of the feeble rule of Henry VI. and the 
turmoil of the civil wars, people were willing to put 
up with stretches of power on the part of the sovereign, 
if only he would maintain order and keep a tight 
hand on the nobles. This task was the easier, 
because war and the headsman's axe, attainder and 
forfeiture had thinned and broken the old nobihty ; 
and weakened as they were, Henry watched them 
jealously. It had long been a practice for the great 
noblemen to give *' Uveries " and " badges " to the 
gentlemen and yeomen of their neighbourhood. There 
was a sort of bond between the great man and those 
who, on occasions of ceremony, donned his livery \ 
it marked them as his "retainers," entitled to his 
protection, and ready to fight in his quarrel. The 
law indeed forbade his giving liveries to any but 
actual members of his household, but nobody dreamed 
of observing it. Onee, as the tale goes, Henry was 



156 HENRY VII. [CHAP, 

entertained by John de Vere^ Earl of Oxford^ who 
had fought for him at Bosworth. Two lines of liveried 
gentlemen and yeomen were drawn up for the King 
to pass through. The E^rl smiled when asked il 
they all belonged to his household — they were mosrtly 
his retainers, he said, who had come to see the Kir»g. 
" By my faith, my Lord," quoth Henry, " I thaixk 
y^ou for your good cheer, but I may not endure ra 
nave my laws broken in my sight. My attorntr 
must speak with you." And the Earl, who had though^ 
to show honour to the King, had to pay a fine r*' 
;^i 0,000. Often the great men were so strong ir 
their own neighbourhood that they could bend the lay 
to their will : they bribed or overawed sheriffs and 
juries, and no one durst go against them. A statute 
was therefore enacted which gave authority to the 
Chancellor, the Treasurer, and the Keeper of the 
Privy Seal, with others of the King's Council, to 
call such offenders before them for punishment 
In the latter part of his reign, Henry's avarice grew 
upon him — when gold coin once went into his 
strong-boxes, it never came out again, said the 
Spanish Ambassador — and he made himself hateful 
by his extortions. His chief instruments were two 
lawyers. Sir Richard E7?ipso7i and Edmund Dudley^ 
who raked up . long-forgotten statutes ant I old claims 
of feudal services in order to exact fines and forfeit- 
ures for their transgression or omission. The whole 
course of justice was wrested to furnish pretences 
for extorting money, and the employment of false 
witnesses and packed juries rendered it hardly possi- 
ble for the most innocent to escape. Henry thus added 
to his hoard, and kept his subjects from growing 
dangerously rich. He died April 21, 1509, at the 
palace of Shene, which he had rebuilt with great 
magnificence, and had called, after his earlier title, 
Richmond. He was buried in his own beautiful 
chapel in Westminster Abbey. 



kjcviii.] HENRY VIll. ISV 

6. Allegiance. — The uncertainty of Henry's title 
caused the passing of an important statute, by which 
it was declared to be the duty of a subject to serve 
the sovereign for the time being, and that no one, for 
so doing, should be convict or attaint of treason. 
This was to prevent the recurrence of the state ol 
things which had existed during the Wars of the 
Roses, when men were punished at one time for follow- 
ing York, and at another for following Lancaster. In 
lega^ phrase, it protected those who served the King 
de fa^to (King ly fact, actual King) even though he 
might not be King dejure (King by right). 

7. Ihe Cabots. — There was now springing up 
a spirit or maritime enterprise which moved men to 
go in seaixh of new lands beyond the ocean. The 
best navigators of the time were the ItaHans and 
Portuguese ; and the first European who is known 
for certain to ,iiave sailed to the mainland of America 
was of Italian origin, though born at Bristol. This 
was Sebastian Cabot, who, accompanied probably by 
his father John Gabotto or Cabot, a citizen of Venice, 
sailed in 1497 from Bristol on a voyage of discovery, 
and found out some part of North America, seemingly 
Labrador and the coast north of Maryland. Some 
think that the Cabots had already, in 1494, made a 
voyage to America, and that the first land they saw 
vas the island of Cape Breton. 

CHAPTER XXVIIL 

HENRY VIII. 

Henry VlII.j beheading of Empson and Dudley (i)— 
Battle of the Spurs; battle of Flodden; marriages 0/ 
Mary Tudor; Field of the Cloth of Gold {2) — Cardinal 
IVolsey; beheading of Buckingham; taxation ; divorce 
of Katharine of Aragon; marriage with Anne Boleyn; 
fall and death of IVolsey : separation from Ronu; tki 



tS8 HENRY VIII. [CHAP, 

Reformation^ relioious and political (3) — the Kin^s 
marriages (4) — Thomas Cromwell ; suppre3sion of the 
monasteries J the Pilgrimage of Grace; Reginald 
Pole J the Bible; the Six Articles ; beheading of 
Cromwell; religious affairs (5) — wars with Scotland 
and France (6) — beheading of the Earl of Surrey ; death 
and will of Henry (7) — Defender of the Faith (8)— 
Wales and Ireland {^)—the navy 10). 

1. Henry VIII., 1509 — 1547. — The new King 
was a handsome youth of eighteen, fair, auburn -haired, 
and of unusual height and strength. He was a master 
of the national weapon, the bow, and was perfect in 
those knightly exercises with sword and iance, which, 
though they were ceasing to be of much use in real 
warfare, were still thought necessaiy accomplish- 
ments for a gciitleman. His intellectual training 
had likewise been high ; he was skilled in music, a 
good scholar, and able to enter into and appreciate 
the new learning and culture of his age. Frank in 
manner and good-humoured, though liable to bursts of 
passion, he seemed to have all thj qualities that 
Englishmen admired in a ruler. But though he gave 
fair promise, Henry was of a fierce and tyrannical 
nature. Yet he had a regard for tlie letter of the law, 
even while he bent the law to his caprice ; and thus, 
though there was little freedom under his rule, all the 
forms of free government remained. To satisfy the 
revenge of those whom they had injured, Empson and 
Dudley were beheaded on a frivolous charge of high 
treason, and thus, though bad men, they suffered 
unjustly for crimes which they had not committed. 

2. ^A^a^ with France. Scottish Invasion.- 
Henry, being desirous of playing a great part in Europe, 
soon mixed himself up in continental wars, taking the 
side opposed to France. Joined by the Eniperor-elecl 
Maximilian^ the King in 15 13 routed the French at 
Guinegate^ in what was jestingly called ''the Battle of the 
Spurs,*' from the panic-stricken flight of the enemy's 



XXVIII.] BREACH WITH ROME. 159 

cavalry. The Scots took advantage of this war to 
invade England, but were defeated by Thomas 
Howard^ Earl of Surrey^ in a battle beneath the hill of 
Flodden^ Sept. 9, 15 13, where their King, James IV., 
together with the flower of their nation, were left dead 
on the field. The next year peace was made with 
the French, their King, Louis XII., marrying Henry's 
pister Mary^ who, being left a widow in three months' 
time, at once gave her hand to Charles Bra?ido?i, Duke 
of Suffolk. In June, 1520, Henry had a series of 
friendly meetings with the new King of France, 
Francis /., between Guines and Ardres, in which 
such splendour was displayed that the meeting-place 
was called " the Field of the Cloth of Gold:' But 
nothing came of these interviews, for Henry had 
already been won over to the interests of the Emperor 
Charles F,, who ruled over Spain, the Two Sicilies, 
the Netherlands, and large Austrian dominions, 
besides being, as Emperor, the head of Germany. In 
alliance with Charles, the King, in 1522, undertook a 
new war against France. Peace was made in 1525, 
the French agreeing to pay Henry an annual pension. 
3. Breach with Rome. — During this period the 
King had been guided by Thomas Wolsey, a royal 
chaplain, and son of a wealthy burgess of Ipswich. 
Able and ambitious, Wolsey had by his talents raised 
himself to the highest pitch of favour. Honours and 
promotion were showered upon him ; he became 
Archbishop of York, Chancellor, a Cardinal, and the 
Papal Legate, in which position he was supreme ovei 
the English Church ; and he even hoped to be Pope. 
The nobles could ill brook the rule of an eccle- 
siastic of no birth; but the days of their power 
were gone by, and the malcontents were cowed by 
the beheading, in 1521, of Edward Stafford^ Dukt 
of Buckingham, a descendant of Edward III., on 
charges of aiming at the throne. Wolsey also be- 
came unpopular through the heavy taxation rendered 



i6o HENRY VIII. [chap. 

necessary by war and the King's profuseness. In 1 5 2 5, 
without sanction from Parliament, commissioners were 
sent into the counties to demand the sixth part of 
every man's substance. " If men should give their 
goods by a commission," the people cried, " then were 
it worse than the taxes of France, and so England 
should be bond and not free." The artisans and 
peasants of Norfolk and Suffolk almost rose in re- 
bellion ; and Henry had to withdraw his demand. 
At last a series of unforeseen circumstances brought 
about the downfall of the powerful minister. The 
King and his wife Katharine of Aragon^ whom he had 
married in the first year of his reign, had only one 
child living, Mary, born in 15 16. Anxious, according 
to his own story, for a male heir, the King began to 
think that the death of his sons in infancy showed that 
his marriage with his brother's widow was displeasing 
to Heaven. His scruples were quickened or suggested 
by his having pitched upon Katharine's successor, 
Anne Boleyn^ a beautiful and lively maid of honour. 
He applied for a divorce to Pope Clejnent VFI.j who, 
equally unwilling to offend either Henry or Katharine's 
nephew the Emperor Charles, and unable to 
dissuade the former from the course he so [persist - 
ently urged, sent over a Legate, Cardinal Cam- 
peggio, who, together with Wolsey, in 1529, held a 
court to try the cause. Katharine was urged to 
withdraw into a nunnery ; but, being resolved 
to maintain her right, she appealed to Rome, 
and the proceedings in England came to an end 
without any sentence being given. At last, after 
the matter had been dragging on for five years, 
and the Universities and learned men at home and 
abroad had been consulted in hopes of obtaining 
opinions favourable to the divorce, Henry, regard- 
less of the Pope's prohibition, privately married 
Anne Boleyn. The newly-appointed Primate, Thomas 
Cranmer^ who owed his elevation to the zeal with which 



jcxviii.j BREACH WITH ROME. l6i 

he had advocated the King's cause, then, on the 23rd of 
May, 1533, pronounced the marriage between Henry 
and Katharine to have been null and void from the 
beginning. The marriage with Anne Boleyn was 
declared lawful ; and a few days afterwards she was 
crowned with great pomp. The forsaken wife, who 
steadily refused to forego her title of Queen, died 
three years later. More however than the fortunes of 
Ivatharine or Anne had been concerned in this affair. 
Henry became dissatisfied with Cardinal Wolsey, who 
he thought had not served him well in the matter ; and 
Wolsey's enemies, chief among whom was Anne, were 
therefore able to ruin him. He was charged with 
having, by the exercise of his authority as Legate, 
transgressed the Statute of Pr€emunire ; the Chancellor- 
ship was taken from him, he was constrained to make 
over to the King the archiepiscopal palace of York- 
Place (now Whitehall), and his possessions were all 
forfeited. In 1530, the year after his fall, he was ar- 
rested on charges of high treason, and brought towards 
London ; but sickening on the way, he died at Leices- 
ter Abbey, saying on his deathbed, " If I had served 
God as diligently as I have served the King, He 
vi^ould not have given me over in my grey hairs." Nor 
was the fall of Wolsey all. Henry, at first only in hopes 
of frightening the Pope, went along with the general 
desire for reform of alleged abuses ; and as the 
breach between the King and Rome widened, step 
by step the English Church was v^rithdrawn from 
the power of the Pope. A statute in " restraint of 
appeals" enacted that from Easter, 1534, there should 
be no appeals to the Bishop or See of Rome. All 
payments to Rome were stopped, and the King was 
declared to be Supreiite Head of the Church of Eng- 
land. Denial of this title was one of the many matters 
which were now made high treason, and men had not 
even liberty to be silent, for suspected persons were lia- 
ble to be called upon to express their acknowledgment of 



<62 HENRY VIII. [CHAP, 

the. royal supremacy. For refusing to do this, several 
persons suffered deatli, the most notable being the 
aged John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, who in 1529 
had given dire offence by remonstrating against the 
divorce, and the learned and excellent Sir Thomas 
More, who had succeeded Wolsey as Chancellor, but 
had retired, not approving of the King's measures. 
Both Fisher and More had been sent to the Tower for 
refusing to swear to maintain the Act concerning the 
King's succession^ which pronounced the marriage with 
Katharine unlawful, and that with Anne lawful and 
valid. They would have consented indeed to acknow- 
ledge Anne's daughter as heir to the throne, but their 
consciences would not permit them to swear assent to 
everything contained in the Act. Their further refusal 
to acknowledge the royal supremacy completed their 
ruin. Fisher walked to the block with a New Testament 
in his hand. Opening it at hazard, he read, " This 
is life eternal, to know Thee ; " and he repeated these 
words as he was led along. More died with cheerful 
composure, even with a jest. As the axe was about 
to fall on his neck, he moved his beard aside : — " Pity 
that should be cut," he murmured, " that has not com- 
mitted treason." By his dealings with the Church 
Henry became an agent in the Reformation, as that 
separation of part of Europe from the communion of 
the Roman See which took place in this century is 
called. Kis part in it was more political than religious j 
and the mass of the nation was of the same mind- 
opposed to the power, but not disagreeing to any great 
extent with the doctrines, of Rome. The particular 
creed of Martin Luther, the German leader in this 
movement, did not take root in England ; but the Swiss 
and French Reformers, who went further than he did, 
had much influence in the next reign. There was 
various teaching among the Reformers, but it in general 
differed from that of Rome on the nature and number 
of the Sacraments and on the obligations and duties 



xxviii.J THE KING'S MARRIAGES. 163 

of the clergy : the reverence paid to reh'cs and images, 
and the use of Latin in the Church services, were 
disapproved of; and the study of the Scriptures was 
urged on every one. The men who held the Re- 
formed doctrines came to be distinguished by the 
name of Protestant Sy which was first given to those 
German princes and cities who in 1529 protested 
against a decree of the Empire unfavourable to the 
Lutherans. From them the name was afterwards ex- 
tended to all who left the communion of Rome. Those 
who adhered to the Pope were called Roman Catholics^ 
Romanists^ and Papists^ and, by themselves, simply 
Catholics^ because they claimed that they alone kept the 
Catholic faith, and that those who cast off the Pope 
were heretics. These names must at first be under- 
stood only as roughly marking two parties within the 
English Church, which had not yet formed themselves 
into distinct conmiuiiions. As yet, it was only a few 
men on either side who made exertions and sacrifices 
for their belief Ordinary people might have leanings 
one way or the other, but they thought it belonged to 
the King to settle religious matters, and ihey obeyed 
the laws on these subjects just as they would any 
other laws. 

4. The King's Marriages. — Anne Boleyn did 
not survive for many months the princess whom she 
had ousted. In May, 1536, her marriage with the King 
was declared null and void, and on a charge, true or 
false, of unfaithfulness, she was beheaded, leaving one 
daughter, Elizabeth, bom in 1533. The day after 
Anne's death, Henry married Jane Seymour^ the 
daughter of a Wiltshire knight. She died the next 
year, shortly after the birth of her son Edward, 
Early in 1540 Henry took a fourth wife, Anne, sister 
of the Duke of Cleves. This match was brought about 
by his chief minister, Thomas Cromwell^ who, being 
favourable to the Reformation, wished the King to 
ally himself with the Protestant princes of Germany. 

M 2 



164 HENRY VIIL [chap 

But unluckily Anne was not good looking, and Henry 
found a pretext for having this marriage also declared 
null and void. Anne was well pensioned off, and 
spent the rest of her life in England ; while the King, 
without delay, married Katharine Howard, niece oi 
Thomas Howard^ Duke of Norfolk, who stood at the 
head of the party hostile to Cromwell and to the 
Reformers. She, being found to have misconducted 
herself, was beheaded, February 12, 1542 ; and the next 
year the King married his sixth and last wife, Katharim 
Parr, widow of Lord Latimer, a discreet woman, who 
kept her place as Henry's Queen until his death. 

5. Administration of Cromwell. — Wolsey's 
power passed to one who had been in his service, 
Thomas Cromwell, created successively Baron Crom- 
well and Earl of Essex. The King made him his 
vicegerent in ecclesiastical matters, and as during 
his administration all the monastic foundations were 
destroyed, he has been called " the Hammer of the 
Monks" This was not done all at once. First, in 
1536, the smaller monasteries were dissolved by Act 
of Parliament, and their revenues given to the King. 
The North-country people, who clung to the old ways, 
broke out into revolt at this : the Yorkshire rebellion, 
led by a young barrister named Robert Aske, was 
quaintly called ** The Pilgrimage of Grace." After the 
resistance had been put down and punished, the de- 
struction of the larger religious houses soon followed, 
the abbots and priors being made to surrender them, as 
of free will, to the King, and an Act being passed in 1 539 
to confirm these and any future surrenders. Meanwlule, 
famous relics and images and shrines were destroyed, 
among them the rich shrine of St. Thomas of Canter- 
bury, Henry proclaiming him to have been no saint, 
but a rebel and traitor. Of the vast wealth thns 
thrown into the King's hands, part went to found new 
bishoprics and part '^.0 fortify the coast ; but much 
more was spent in lavish grants to the courtiers, whilst 



nmn.] ADMINISTRATION OF CROMWELL. 165 

many of the abbey churches and buildings were pulled 
down for the sake of their lead and stone. On his side, 
the Pope, Paul TIL, issued in 1538 a Bull excommu- 
nicating and deposing Henry ; and Cardinal Reginald 
Pole, a grandson of George, Duke of Clarence, did his 
best to stir up foreign powers as well as English mal- 
contents for the restoration by force of arms of the 
old state of ecclesiastical matters. Pole himself kept 
out of the way abroad, but he had friends and kinsfolk 
in England, and several persons suffered death on 
charges of treasonable correspondence with him. Chief 
among these were ffetiry Courtenay, Marquess of Exeter^ 
son of a daughter of Edward IV., and suspected of 
plotting an insurrection in the West \ Pole's elder 
brother, Lord Montagu^ and, at a later time, his aged 
mother. Margaret^ Countess of Salisbury, the last of the 
direct line of the Plantagenets. The descent of the 
Poles and Courtenays marked them out as leaders 
of the old Yorkist party, which had formed hopes of 
setting Exeter on the throne. It must not be thoughr 
however that the Reformed doctrines were triumphant. 
Under the influence indeed of Cromwell and Cianmer, 
the King caused Articles of Religion, approaching 
somewhat to the Lutheran views, to be set forth ; 
translations of the Scriptures, such as had hitherto been 
forbidden, were, to the great joy of the Reformers, 
not only tolerated, but published with the royal 
licence ; an edition of the Bible in English was pre- 
pared and printed under the avowed patronage of 
Cromwell, and an order was issued that a copy of this 
version should be placed in every church for all in en 
to read. But in 1539 the party opposed to the 
Reformers, of which the leaders were the Duke of 
Norfolk and Stephen Gardiner^ Bishop of Winchester^ 
obtained the passing of the Act of the " Six Articles," 
remembered by the Protestants under the name of 
" the whip with six strings," which restored many of 
the old doctrines, and forbade the marriage of priests 



l66 HENRY VTII. [ch<^p 

Cromwell's favour was already waning, and his down- 
fall was hastened by Henry's dissatisfaction with Anne 
of Cleves. He was beheaded July 28, 1540, an Act 
of Parliament attainting him of treason and heresy 
having been passed without his being heard in his 
defence. Two days later, an example was made of 
offenders of both parties — six clergymen were put to 
death at Smithfield, three as traitors, for affirming that 
the marriage with Katharine had been lawful ; three as 
heretics, for preaching Luther's doctrines. After the 
fall of Cromwell, Gardiner and his party came more 
into power, though they were never able to over- 
throw Archbishop Cranmer, who, as far as he durst, 
favoured the Reformers. The new doctrines were 
spreading fast, and "in every alehouse and tavern," 
as Henry complained, men wrangled over religious 
questions. An Act was passed in 1543 forbidding 
the reading of the Bible by " the lower sort " of people 
— artificers, labourers, and the like ; and many of the 
translations and religious works of the Reformers 
were suppressed ; although an English Litany, trans- 
lated perhaps by the King, and other prayers in the 
vulgar tongue, were ordered to be used. Of the 
Protestants put to death in this reign, one of the most 
notable was Anne Ascue (daughter of Sir William 
Ascue), who was burned in Smithfield, in July, 1546. 

6. Wars with Scotland and France. — In 
1542 a war broke out with Scotland, whose King, 
James V., being on the side of Rome, was not dis- 
posed towards alliance with his urcle Henry of Eng- 
land. A Scottish army crossed the Border, but whether 
from disaffection or from sudden panic, it fled before 
a few hundreds of Englishmen at Solway Moss. This 
disgrace broke the heart of James, who died not long 
afterwards, leaving as his successor an infant daughter, 
Mary Stuart. Henry negotiated a marriage between 
the young Queen and his son Edward; but the treaty 
to that effect was soon broken off by the Scots, and 



3CXVIII.] DEATH OF HENRY. 167 

Henry's attempts to enforce its fulfilment by sending 
his army to ravage and burn their country only set 
them the more against the proposed match. Edin- 
burgh itself was sacked and fired by the English under 
Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, brother of Queen 
Jane Seymour. Irritated by French intrigues in Scot- 
land, Henry, in alliance with Charles V., also entered 
upon war with France, and passing over to that country 
in 1544, he took Boulogne, which it was afterwards 
agreed should be given back at the end of eight years, 
upon payment of a sum of money, besides the pension 
due by the treaty of 1525. The Scots were included 
in this peace. 

7. Death of Henry. — Henry, who in his later 
years had become unwieldy and infirm, and suffered 
great pain, died Jan. 28, 1547. Not long before, the 
Duke of Norfolk and his son Henry Howard, Earl of 
Surrey, who was famous for his poetical talent, had been 
sent to the Tower under charges of treason, the sus- 
picion being that they meant to seize on the Regency 
after Henry's death. Surrey was beheaded on the 19th 
Jan., and it is said that the day for Norfolk's execution 
was fixed ; but as on that very morning the King died, 
the sentence was not carried out, and the Duke re- 
mained in prison. It is supposed that Surrey owed his 
death to the Seymours, who had risen into high favour 
with the King, and between whom and the Howards 
there was bitter jealousy. The Howards belonged to 
the old nobility, and leaned towards the old faith \ the 
Seymours were " new men," and well-disposed to the 
new doctrines. The Earl of Hertford was among the 
sixteen " executors " of King Henry's will, to whom 
the government during the minority of his son was 
entrusted ; for Parliament had given Henry special 
powers with regard to the succession to his kingdom. 
In case Edward died childless, the Crown was settled 
by Act of Parliament on the King's daughters, first on 
Mary and her heirs, then on Elizabeth and her heirs. 



i68 EDWARD VI [chap 

After them, Henry bequeathed it to the descendants 
of his younger sister Mary. 

8. Defender of the Faith. — Henry was the first 
of our Kings who bore the title of " Defender of the 
Faith.''' This he obtained in 152 1 fiom the Pope, 
Leo X., in return for his having written against Luthei 
a Latin treatise on the Seiien Sacraments; and he and 
his successors still kept it after they had ceased, in 
papal eyes at least, to deserve it. 

9. Wales and Ireland. — In 1536 Wales was 
incorporated with England, and the English laws and 
liberties were granted to its inhabitants. Ireland, where 
England had almost lost its authority, such as it was, 
was brought under a somewhat stronger rule ; and in 
1542 it was raised to the dignity of a kingdom, having 
been hitherto styled only a lordship. 

10. The Navy. — Henry VIII. followed the 
example of his father in paying great attention to the 
navy. He constituted the Admiralty and Navy Office, 
and incorporated the Trinity House, a guild for the 
promotion of commerce and navigation, which was 
empowered to make laws for the shipping ; he also 
established dockyards at Deptford, Woolwich, and 
Portsmouth. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

EDWARD ▼!• 

Edward VI j rule of the Protector Somerset (i) — behead 

ing of Seymour ; fall and beheading of Somerset (2) 
— the Duke of Northumberland j death, of the King; 
alteration of the succession (3) — the Reformation (4). 

I. Edward VI., 1547-1553. — The directions of 
Henry's will were at once infringed, tlie Earl of Hert- 
ford prevailing on his fellow-executors to make him 
Protector and governor of the young King his nephew 



XXIX.] THE DUKE OF SOMERSET. 169 

and thus to place him at the head of the State, 
although under the will they had equal powers. In 
accordance, it was said, with the late King's intentions, 
he was also created Duke of Somerset. Ambitious 
and greedy of riches, the Protector yet really sought 
the welfare of his country, and won the love of the 
common people, for whom he had kindly feelings 
He was a good soldier, and in tlie first year of his 
rule he made a savage attack upon Scotland, in 
hopes of enforcing the marriage treaty; his victory 
at Pinkie^ near Musselburgh (September 10, 1547), 
strengthened his influence at home, although he did 
not bring back the young Queen, who in the course of 
the next year was sent into France as the betrothed 
of the Dauphin, afterwards King Francis II. In 
religious matters Somerset gave his support to the 
advanced Reformers, who had hitherto been kept 
down : and when Parliament met, the " Six Articles " 
and the statutes against the Lollards were repealed, 
as well as Henry's harsh enactments concerning treason. 
All the remaining chantries (where masses were said 
for the souls of particular persons) and colleges, saving 
only the cathedral chapters, the colleges in the Uni- 
versities of Oxford and Cambridge, and the colleges 
of Winchester and Eton, were suppressed, and their 
property made over to the Crown. The King, who 
was only ten years old when he came to the throne, 
Oeing brought up by men of strong Protestant views, 
naturally held their opinions ; and in piety and religious 
zeal he was beyond his years. Hugh Latimer^ the most 
outspoken of the Reformed preachers, the most fear- 
less rebuker of iniquity in high places, had a pulpit 
erected for him in the King's garden, where young 
Edward would sit and listen to sermons an hour long. 
The boy received an excellent education, and being 
intelrigent, quick, and thoughtful, he made great pro- 
giess. Even before he was eight years old he had 
written Latin letters to his father. 



IJO EDWARD VI. [CHAP 

2. Fall of Somerset. — The first enemy Somerset 

had to deal with was his own brother, Thomas^ Lord 
Seymour of Siideky, High Admiral of England^ an 
ambitious and unprincipled man, who had married 
the widowed Queen Katharine Parr. Aiming at sup- 
planting the Protector, he was himself destroyed by 
a bill of attainder, without being heard in his own 
defence, and was beheaded March 20, 1549. That 
Seymour had been plotting to upset the government 
by force is likely enough; but, ruthless as the age was, 
there were yet many who thought it a horrible thing 
for one brother to send another to the block. Somer- 
set's rule did not last much longer, his government 
proving a failure both at home and abroad. His 
predecessors in authority had left him a difficult task. 
To meet the expenses of the government the coinage 
had been depreciated Prices had in consequence 
risen ; while, the demand for labour having fallen off, 
wages had not risen in proportion. Large sheep-farms 
had been found to pay better than tillage-farms ; 
and though in the long run it was best that the land 
should be employed to the most profit, at the time 
the change caused great distress. Tenants and 
labourers were turned away, villages were pulled down 
— where once many had found homes and work, there 
was " now but a shepherd and his dog." The new 
owners — courtier nobles, or wealthy traders and graziers 
— ^were stricter landlords than the old monks and 
nobles; and wherever they could, they enclosed the 
extensive waste and common lands on which the 
poor had partly found their livelihood. Unemployed 
labourers and dispossessed squatters turned beggars 
or thieves, and it was in vain that law after law was 
passed against vagrants. The peasantry had thus 
many grievances, which in some parts they charged 
ipon the change of religion. There were soon dis 
turbances in many quarters. The common people ol 
the West rose in arms to demand the restoration 



XXIX. 1 FALL OF SOMERSET. 171 

of the mass, which had given place to the English 
Prayer-book; the Norfolk men, headed hy Robert Ket^ 
a tanner by trade, but lord of three manors, broke out 
into insurrection against the landowners who were 
enclosing commons and turning arable land into pas- 
ture. The Norfolk rebellion was quelled, not without 
a sharp struggle, by John Dudley, Ea?'l of Warivtck^ 
at the head of a force partly made up of German 
mercenaries. With these Norfolk insurgents the Pro- 
tector had at first somewhat sympathised, and it was 
charged against him that by having appointed com- 
missioners to remove illegal enclosures, he had en- 
couraged the peasantry to revolt. Moreover he was 
harsh to the young King, and haughty to the nobles. 
" Of late," one of his friends wrote to him plainly, 
"your Grace is grown into great choleric fashions, when- 
soever you are contraried in that which you have con- 
ceived in your head." His administration was waste- 
ful ; he had made a vast fortune out of the Church 
property, and had given offence by building for himself 
a splendid palace (on the site of which stands the 
present Somerset House), pulling down churches and 
the cloister of St. Paul's to supply materials or to make 
room. The Earl of Warwick and many other lords of 
the Council joining together to get rid of him, he was 
in 1549 deposed from the Protectorate, and heavily 
fined. One of the faults alleged against him was 
having left in a defenceless state Boulogne, which was 
now threatened by the French ; and, the country' being 
unprepared to carry on a war for it, his successors in 
the government were obliged to give it back, though 
they received in compensation only a fifth of the 
sum promised to Henry VUI., and virtually surren- 
dered the annual pension. But to the last Somer- 
set was beloved, especially as the administration 
of his successors proved worse than his had been ; 
and when, in 1552, he was beheaded on a charge of 
conspiring against his rival, ^Varwick, now Duke oj 



i*}z EDWARD VI. [chap 

Northumberland, and two others of the Council , great 
was the sorrow for him. 

3. The Duke of Northumberland.— The Duke 
of Northumberland, who took the management of 
affairs after Somerset's fall, was the son of that Dudley 
who had been the evil agent of Henry Yll. He had 
shown a vigour in putting down the Norfolk rebellion, 
which, in the eyes of all who feared a general peasant 
insurrection, contrasted favourably with the wavering 
policy of Somerset. As for religion, he appears in 
reality to have had none, but it suited him to set up 
for a thorough-going Protestant, and he was in conse- 
quence the idol of some of the more eager members 
of that party, although his government was tyrannical, 
and the people detested him. In 1553 the young 
King, who took much interest in public affairs, and 
whose coming of age was looked forward to with great 
hopes, fell dangerously ill. Northumberland foresaw 
that if Katharine of Aragon's daughter, the Lady 
Mary, who altogether disapproved of the doings of 
her brother's ministers in religious matters, came to 
the throne, his power would be at an end. He there- 
fore persuaded the dying boy to alter the succession — 
a thing which the King had no right to do without 
authority from Parliament — ^by shutting out his sisters, 
and settling the crown on his cousin Lady Jane Grey, 
daughter of Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, and grand- 
daughter of Charles Brandon and Mary, daughter of 
Henry VII. Edward was led to this by the fear that 
the Reformed faith would suffer if his sister Mary 
reigned; Northumberland's motive was the hope of 
setting on the throne his fourth son, Lord Guilford 
Dudley^ whom he had just married to Lady Jane. 
With all his father's wilfulness, the youthful King over- 
bore the legal objections of tne judges ; and by his 
entreaties he won the consent of Archbishop Cranmer. 
Shortly after, Edward died at Green^vich, July 6, his 
last prayer being that England might be defended from 



XXIX.] THE REFORMATION. 173 

'papistry." The common belief was that Northumber- 
land had hastened his end by poison, but of this there. 
IS no sufficient proof. 

4. The Reformation. — The Protestant Reformat 
tion made rapid progress in London and in the towns, 
especially in those on the sea-coast ; but the country 
( listricts were slower in accepting it, and the govern- 
ment pushed it on both further and faster than suited 
I he mass of the nation. Somerset early issued in- 
junctions to put away the pictures and images in the 
churches ; and the overthrow of crucifixes, the white- 
rt^ashing of walls once adorned with paintings, and the 
iestruction of stained glass, brought the change before 
„he eyes of the simplest and most ignorant. Gardiner, 
ivho gave offence by opposing Somerset's religious 
measures, Edtnund Boiiner, Bishop of Lo7idon^ and other 
bishops who would not go all lengths with the party 
in power, were sent to prison ; and Northumberland 
filled their sees with Protestants, Nicholas Ridky^ 
one of the ablest of the Reforming clergy, succeed- 
ing Bonner in London. Out of the college and 
chantry property King Edward endowed grammar- 
schools at Shrewsbury, Birmingham, Macclesfield, and 
other places ; but great part of the wealth gained 
by stripping the churches of their plate, and suppress- 
ing and diminishing the possessions of bishoprics, 
went into the hands of the men in power and theii 
friends, to whom the Reformation was dear chiefly 
for the sake of the plunder. Bishop Ridley, preach- 
ing before Edward at Whitehall, took occasion to 
speak of the distressed condition of the London 
poor; upon which the young King, sending for the 
Bishop, asked his advice as to what should be done. 
Ridley suggested consulting the corporation of the 
City, whose conduct in founding hospitals and schools 
already formed an honourable contrast to that of the 
government. The result was that the old house of 
the Grey Friars was chartered by the King as Christ t 



174 EDWARD VI. [chap. 

H'^spital (commonly called the Bluecoai School) ; the 
Hospitals of St. Bartholomew and St. Thomas were 
re-founded and re-endowed ; and the King made ovei 
the royal house of Bridewell for a workhouse. The 
Prayer-book of the Church of England was com 
piled in this reign by Archbishop Cranmer, who took 
the old Latin services for his groundwork. The first 
complete Prayer-book was set forth in 1549, but many 
changes were made in 1552 under the influence of 
the foreign Reformers ; and Acts for the '* Uniformity 
of Service " forbade the use of any other religious 
rites. Cranmer also put forth forty-two Articles oj 
Religion, which at a later time were cut down to thirty- 
nine, and underwent some other changes. The Lady 
Mary firmly refused to have the new service used 
in her house, although, after the fall of Somerset, 
attempts were made to constrain her to conform. 
" Rather than she will agree to use any other service 
than was used at the death of the late King her 
father," was the report brought back by those who 
were sent to overcome her opposition, "she would 
lay her head on a block and suffer death." Ridley 
tried his powers of argument in vain — " I cannot tell 
what you call God's word," said Mary. "That is 
not God's word now which was God's word in my 
father's time." Tolerance was not in those days 
looked upon as a virtue, even by Reformers. A 
friend of Anne Ascue, Joan Bocher by name, who 
held opinions condemned by both of the two great 
religious parties, was in 1550 burned at the stake. 



XXX.1 MARY 17$ 



CHAPTER XXX. 

MARY. 

Mary ; Lady Jane Grey (i) — the Spanish marriage, 
Vyyatfs insurrection J beheading of Lady Jane; re- 
conciliation with Rome (2)— persecution of the Pro- 
testants (3) — loss of Calais J death of Mary (4). 

I. Mary, 1553-1558. Lady Jane Grey.— It 

had been intended to keep Edward's death a secret 
until the Ladies Mary and Elizabeth had been secured ; 
but Mary had friends who gave her warning, and she 
at once made her escape into Norfolk. Her inno- 
cent rival, Jane Grey, was but sixteen, beautiful, ac- 
complished, learned, and firm in the Reformed faith. 
Jane had known nothing of her father-in-law's ambitious 
schemes, and when he and four other lords came to 
her at Sion House, and knelt before her as their Queen, 
she received their information with amazement and 
dismay. On the loth July she was proclaimed j but 
her reign only lasted nine days. The nation was 
unaiiimous in regarding Mary as the rightful heir, and 
thousands gathered round her. No voice was raised 
to cheer the Duke as he rode out of the city at the 
head of his troops to advance against Mary's forces. 
" The people press to see us," he gloomily observed, 
''but not one sayeth God speed us." Mary was 
proclaimed in London amid general rejoicing on the 
19th July, after which, Northumberland, losing heatt 
on finding his men fall away, himself proclaimed 
her in Cambridge, throwing his cap into the air as a 
signal for applause, while tears of mortification were 
seen running down his cheeks. Not a blow being 
struck for Jane, Mary entered London in triumph at 
the head of her friends. Her first act was to set free 



176 MARY. [CHAP. 

the Duke of Norfolk, Bishop Gardiner, and othev 
state prisoners. The Duke of Northumberland, whose 
ambition had thus been baffled, was tried and 
beheaded, and, to the dismay of the Reformers, died 
declaring that he had returned to the ancient faith. 
Simon Renard^ the ambassador of Charles V., whom 
Mary chiefly consulted, urged that Jane and hex 
husband should also die, but the Queen as yet was 
pitiful, and they were only kept prisoners in the 
Tower. 

2. The Spanish Marriage. — Unfortunately foi 
her popularity, Mary was sincerely devoted to the 
Church of Rome. The nation indeed, disgusted with 
the Reforming statesmen of the last reign, was by no 
means Protestant at heart, except in London and the 
large towns. The deprived bishops were restored, 
Gardiner was made Chancellor, the foreign preachers 
were ordered out of the country, Cranmer and Latimer 
were sent to the Tower, and the mass was said as 
of old. When Parhament met, all laws concerning 
religion passed in the last reign were repealed, and 
it was enacted that divine service was to be per- 
formed as in the last year of Henry VIIL But Mary 
wanted more than this ; and whereas her people wished 
her to marry some English nobleman, Edward 
Courtenay, Earl of Devon, a great-grandson of Edward 
IV., being especially thought of, she had made up her 
mind to take the Emperor's son, Philip of Spain, for 
her husband. Every one agreed in disapproving of 
her choice. The heir of a foreign kingdom would 
have other interests than those of England to look to; 
and men feared lest the country should become a 
province of Spain. " The Spaniards," murmured the 
people, " were coming into the realm with harness and 
hand-guns. This realm should be brought to bondage 
by them as it was never afore." To hinder the 
marriage, Sir Thomas Wyatt raised a formidable insur- 
rection among the Kentishmen, who marched upon 



XXX.] THE SPANISH MARRIAGE. 177 

London with the intention of seizing upon the Queen. 
Mary ralHed the waveiing Londoners to her cause — 
unless her marriage, she said, was approved by Lords 
and Commons in Pariiament, she would never marry. 
"Wherefore stand fast against these rebels, your 
enemies and mine ; fear them not, for I assure you I 
fear them nothing at all." The next morning more 
than 20,000 men had enrolled themselves to protect 
the city. Wyatt's army fell off as he advanced ; and 
though he made his way into London, no one joined 
him, and at Temple Bar he gave himself up. The 
first to suffer for this rebellion were two captives who 
had had no part in it. Mary, being persuaded that 
her former lenity had encouraged rebellion, ordered 
the execution of Lady Jane and her young husband 
Guilford Dudley, who were accordingly beheaded Feb. 
12, 1554. Jane, her faith unshaken by the priest whom 
the Queen sent to convert her, died with gentle firm- 
ness. With more justice, W^yatt, as well as the Duke of 
Suffolk, who had been concerned in a similar attempt 
at insurrection, were put to death, and many other rebels 
shared their fate. The real design of the conspirators, 
it was believed, had been to raise to the throne the 
Lady Elizabeth with Courtenay as her husband ; both 
therefore were sent to the Tower. Renard, truly 
considering Elizabeth to be a dangerous rival, urged 
that she should be put to death ; but as there was no 
evidence against her, she was only placed for a time 
m ward at Woodstock. Courtenay was afterwards 
ordered abroad, and died in Italy. Philip of Spain 
came over in July, and the marriage took place. 
Nature and education had made him stiff and un- 
gracious; but he tried hard to be conciliatory, re- 
questing his attendants, on his arrival, to conform 
to the manners of the country, and setting the 
example by drinking off a tankard of ale. He was 
called King of England so long as the Queen lived ; 
but, to the great vexation of himself and his wife, 

N 



f78 MARY. tCHAP 

Parliament would not consent that he should be 
crowned, or that he should succeed Mary if she died 
childless. The next step after the marriage was to 
bring about a reconciliation with Rome. On the 
30th November, 1554, the Lords and Commons met 
at Whitehall, went on their knees, and were absolved, 
together with the whole realm, from heresy and schism, 
by Cardinal Reginald Pole, who had come over as the 
Pope's Legate. Yet the triumph was not so complete 
as it seemed. The Lollard statutes indeed were 
revived, the statutes against the supremacy of the See 
of Rome were swept away ; but the Pope had to 
consent that the holders of lands and goods taken 
from the Church should remain in possession. Mary, 
more zealous than her subjects, restored the Church 
re^enues which were in the hands of the Crown, and 
re-established some of the old religious houses. 

3. The Persecution. — The statutes against here- 
tics were not revived for nothing. The fire was first 
kindled for John Rogers^ a canon of St. Paul's, who 
had worked upon the translation of the Bible ; and, 
by the end of the reign, two hundred persons or 
more, men and women, had died at the stake. In 
justice, it must be said that most men then believed 
it right to punish erroneous opinions — a belief which 
the Roman Catholics had the opportunity of fully 
carrying out. The people, sickened by the whole- 
sale slaughter, and touched by the courage of the 
sufferers, were more won to the Protestant cause by 
these spectacles than by any arguments. It had 
been thought by many that the men of the new doc- 
trines had no sincere belief; but proving staunch on 
trial, they called forth a burst of admiration ; while 
Mary has come down to posterity with the epithet of 
" bloody " fixed upon her. The same fearful word 
cleaves to Bishop Bonner, to whose lot it fell to 
try and condemn a large number of the victims — 
a task for which he seems in truth to have had no 



XXX.] LOSS OF CALAIS. 179 

great liking. John Hooper, late Bishop of Gloucester 
and Worcester, was burned in his episcopal city of 
Gloucester. On the same day was burned RowlUnd 
Taylor, the parish priest of Hadleigh, whose tender 
parting with his wife and daughters drew tears from 
the sheriff and the men who guarded him. Ridley, 
late Bishop of London, who had preached in defence 
of the Lady Jane's claim to. the crown, and the aged 
Latimer, bound to one stake, were burned together at 
Oxford, Oct. 1 6, 1555. "Be of good comfort, Master 
Ridley," said Latimer, as the first lighted faggot was 
laid at his companion's feet, " and play the man. We 
shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in 
England, as I trust shall never be put out." Cranmer, 
of less firm mould than the others, recanted ; but this 
humiliation did not save his life. Being brought to 
the stake, he abjured his recantation, and, as an evi- 
dence of repentance, thrust the hand that had written 
it first into the flame, crying, "This hand hath 
offended." These were leading men, but among the 
laity the persecution did not strike high, labourers, 
artisans, tradesmen, private gentlemen at the most, 
being the usual victims. 

4. Loss of Calais. — The marriage of Philip and 
Mary was unhappy. They were childless, and 
though Mary doted on her husband, he did not care 
for her ; she was a small, haggard, sickly woman, eleven 
years older than himself; and le had married her 
only to suit his father's policy. England, where he 
was regarded with suspicion and katred, offered him 
no attractions ; and when he left it to become, by the 
abdication of his father, sovereign of the Netherlands 
and King of Spain, he had little inducement to return. 
After this he only came over once for a few months 
to urge the Queen to join him in war against France ; 
she consented, and the result was disastrous. The 
government had neglected to repair the defences of 
Calais, or to keep a sufficient garrison in it ; and in 



l8o ELIZABETH. [chap. 

January 1558 it was taken by the French. It was no 
real loss ; but it was a terrible blow to English pride, 
and the Queen is reported to have said, ''When 1 
die, Calais will be found written on my heart." The 
unfortunate Mary, neglected by her husband, broken 
down in health, and having lost the love of her 
people, died November 17, 1558. Cardinal Pole, who 
had succeeded Cranmer in the archbishopric of Can- 
terbury, survived the Queen only twenty-two hours. 
From that time the power of Rome in England was 
at an end. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

ELIZABETH. 

Elizabeth (i) — the Reformed Church; Roman Catholics 
and Puritans; Ireland {i)— flight of the Queen oj 
Scots to England; her captivity and execution (3) — 
the struggle with Spain; Sir Philip Sidney ; naval 
adventurers ; Walter Rctlegh; Francis Drake; defeat 
of the Armada {j^ — the Earl of Essex; rebellion oJ 
Tyrone (5) — monopolies (6) — death of Elizabeth (7) — 
East India Company (8). 

I. Elizabeth, 1558-1603. — ^/^Jj^/^^Z/^ was welcomed 
by all when, in her twenty-sixth year, she succeeded 
to the crown. She had conformed first to the religion 
of Edward VI., and then, though unwillingly, to that of 
Mary, and her own opinions were vague ; but it soon 
appeared that she intended to support a moderate 
Reformation, although Philip of Spain, not long after 
her accession, offered her his hand on condition that 
she would profess and uphold his creed. After some 
delay she refused him, as in the end she did every one 
of her suitors, although she gave hopes to many, and 



XXXI.] THE REFORMED CHURCH. t8i 

was earnestly pressed by Parliament to marry. She 
loved her country, although she had inherited hei 
father's imperious and despotic nature ; her chief faults 
as a ruler were irresolution and want of openness ; 
her private weaknesses — personal vanity and a love of 
flattery — might afford food for the ridicule of her 
enemies, but they did not prevent her from being a 
great sovereign. She had the art of choosing sagacious 
advisers, and to the wise counsels of her chief minister, 
William Cecily afterwards Baron Burghley and Lord 
High Treasurer, much of the success of her reign is 
to be attributed. Sir Francis Walsingham, and Robert 
Cecil, second son of Lord Burghley, and afterwards 
created Earl of Salisbury j are also notable among 
her advisers. She had also favourites, often clever 
men, but owing their influence to their courtierlike 
qualities, their accomplishments, their good mien, 
and their professed devotion to her. Sometimes 
these men had considerable power, but none ever 
gained complete mastery over her. Foremost among 
them was the handsome, polished, but worthless Lord 
Robert Dudley, younger son of the late Duke of 
Northumberland, and created Earl of Leicester. He 
was unpopular, and evil tales were told of him ; but 
he won the Queen's liking, though he failed to obtain 
her hand. Elizabeth loved pomp and show, and to 
be surrounded by a gallant train of nobles and 
gendemen vying for her favour. It was the fashion to 
address extravagant compliments to sovereigns and 
to ladies ; and thus the Queen received a double 
portion of flattery. But her fearless spirit, her royal 
bearing, her shrewd and ready wit, won genuine 
admiration from the great mass of her subjects. 

2. Religious Affairs. — In religion Elizabeth's 
plan was to hold a middle course, and so to shape the 
Church that it should content moderate men of both 
parties. But willing or unwilling, all must accept her 
system ; for to her, as to most statesmen, it seemed 



I82 ELIZABETH. [chap 

necessary that the nation should be, outwardly at 
least, united in religion. On this plan, the Reformed 
Church of England was now establislied, and the 
supremacy of the Crown was restored by Act of Parlia- 
ment, though Elizabeth would not take the title of 
Head of the Church. Almost all Mary's bishops 
were deprived for refusing to take the oath of supre- 
tnacy^ which declared the Queen to be supreme 
governor "as well in all spiritual and ecclesiastical 
things or causes as temporal ; " and Bonner was im- 
prisoned for the rest of his days. Towards the end 
of T559 Matthew Parker, a learned and prudent man, 
was consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury. The 
second Prayer-book of Edward, with some alterations 
intended to suit those who leaned to the old views, 
was restored ; and a new Act of Uniformity forbade 
the use by a minister of any other services, and im- 
posed a fine on those who absented themselves from 
church. This bore heavily on the Roman Catholics, 
of whom many withdrew beyond sea, and became 
a source of danger to Elizabeth ; while those who 
remained at home were harassed and persecuted 
under laws of increasing severity. Elizabeth's deter- 
mination to make all her subjects conform to the rites 
she established was resisted, not only by the Roman 
Catholics, but by the extreme Protestants or " Puri- 
tans'' as they came to be nicknamed, from their 
desiring a simpler and purer form of worship^that 
is to say, one which should have less in common 
with that of Rome. These men had to a great extent 
learned their opinions from the followers of the French 
reformer John Calvin, under whose influence Geneva 
had become a model Puritan State. Even under 
Edward the Reformation had not gone far e»iough 
for them, still less under the Queen, who retained 
ceremonies and practices which to their minds 
savoured of superstition. Thus, for example, they 
objected vehemently to the white surplice which aU 



xxxi.] THE PURITANS. 183 

ministers were ordered to wear when saying public 
prayers. After a time uniformity in the Church 
services was strictly enforced^ thirty-seven London 
clergymen at once being suspended from their ministry 
for refusing compliance. The non-conformist clergy 
and their friends then took to holding religious meet- 
ings of their ov'n, which were put down as offences 
against the law. The great body of the Puritans 
however did not wish to leave the Church, although 
they strove to mould it to their own views, and even 
to alter its government; for many of them were 
beginning to disapprove of episcopacy ^ that is, govern- 
ment by bishops. There sprang up also in the latter 
part of the reign a sect afterwards famous under the 
name of Independents^ which avowedly separated from 
the established Church. The chief instrument em- 
ployed to force the Puritans into conformity was 
the High Commission Court, appointed by Elizabeth 
under the powers of the Act of Supremacy, to inquire 
into and punish by spiritual censure, deprivation, fine, 
and imprisonment, heresies, schisms, absence from 
church, and such like offences. Troublesome as the 
Puritans were to Elizabeth, they were staunch in 
their loyalty; for it was no time for any Protestant 
to be disloyal, when the old faith and the reformed 
were struggling for life or death throughout Europe, 
and Phihp, the mightiest prince of the age, was on 
the side of Rome. Elizabeth became, more by force 
of circumstances than by her own wish, the hope of the 
Reformed communions, and the Puritans forgave her 
their own wrongs in consideration of the help she doled 
out to their Protestant brethren in France, Scotland, 
and the Netherlands. One incident shows what the 
Puritan mettle was. In 1579 EHzabeth professed to 
to be about to marry Francis, the young Duke oj 
Anjou, brother to the French King. This proposed 
French marriage was as unpopular as her sister's 
Spanish marriage had been. A Puritan lawyer, John 



i84 ELIZABETH. [chap 

Stubbs, wrote a pamphlet against it, so outspoken 
that Ehzabeth had the author and the bookseller 
tried as stirrers-up of sedition, and punished by having 
their right hands struck off. When his sentence 
was executed, Stubbs, with unalterable loyalty, waved 
his hat with his remaining hand and cried, "God 
save the Queen ! " In Ireland the Church was reformed 
as in England, but there in its new shape it took 
no root, even the settlers of the Pale, the English 
district, being little inclined towards it, and scarcely 
any trouble being bestowed upon winning them over 
otherwise than by force of law. 

3. Mary Stuart. — The person generally looked 
upon as Elizabeth's heir was Mary Stuart, Queen 0/ 
Scots and widow of Francis II., King of France. 
Though left out of Henry the Eighth's will (which 
however some believed not to have been signed with 
the King's own hand, and therefore to be worthless), 
she was the nearest heir, being the granddaughter of his 
elder sister Margaret. Some of the Roman Catholics 
regarded her as rightful Queen of England already, 
and she, when in France, had taken that title. The 
Scots were mainly Protestants of Calvin's school ; 
but Mary was herself a Roman Catholic, and as 
the hopes of the English Roman Catholics were 
fixed upon her, she was a -formidable rival to Eliza- 
beth. She was one of the most fascinating of women^ 
and in cleverness and craft she matched EHza- 
beth, but was inferior to her in caution and self- 
control. By her folly, if by nothing worse, she laid 
herself open to accusations of great crimes, on 
account of which the Scottish lords forced her to 
resign her crown to her infant son James VI., in 
the murder of v/hose father, Henry Stuart, Lord 
Darnley, she was believed to have been an accomplice. 
They placed her in captivity, from which she escapea, 
and flying to England, threw herself on Elimbeth's 
protection, May lO, 1568. But, contrary to her 



XXXI.] MARY STUART. 185 

expectation, the English government detained her 
as a state prisoner, in which position she became as 
dangerous to EHzabeth as EHzabeth had once been 
to her own sister. Round the beautiful captive 
gathered a succession of conspiracies against EHza- 
beth, formed by Roman Catholics who looked to Spain 
for help. Thomas Percy and Charles Neville, Earls oj 
Northumberland and Westmoreland, raised a Roman 
Catholic rebellion in the North, where men still clung 
to the old faith. It was quickly crushed, and punished 
with extreme severity. Plans were formed for marrying 
Mary to the chief nobleman in England, the Duke oj 
Norfolk (son of the poet Surrey), and restoring the 
Roman CathoUc religion by the help of a Spanish 
army. The plot being discovered, the Duke was be- 
headed, June 2, 1572. Pope Pius V.\r\ 1570 pubhshed 
a bull absolving Elizabeth's subjects from their allegi- 
ance, which in the end did more harm to the Pope's 
friends than to the Queen. All hope of reconciliation 
between the English government and Rome having 
died out, the Roman Catholics generally ceased to attend 
the Reformed services, and became distinctly marked 
off as a separate religious body. Seminary priests 
(that is, pnests from colleges established abroad for 
English Roman Catholics) d^wdi Jesuits poured into the 
kingdom, not only to keep up the rites of their Church, 
but, as was generally believed, to stir up their disciples 
against the Queen. The Jesuits were the members of 
the " Company of Jesus*' a new religious order devoted 
to the service of the Pope ; and their zeal and energy 
everywhere inspired the members of their Church with 
fresh life. Many of these missionaries were put to 
the death of traitors. Often before being brought to 
trial, they were tortured foi the purpose of wringing 
information from them ; for though torture to extort 
evidence was never recognised by law, it had never- 
theless begun to be employed in the fifteenth century, 
and was in frequent use under the Tudors, the Privy 



i86 ELIZABETH. [CHAP 

Council claiming a right to inflict it when it was 
thought that information of importance to the govern- 
ment might be thereby obtained. In the seventeenth 
centurv the judges declared torture to be altogether 
illegal. There were constant plots and rumours of 
plots to kill Ehzabeth ; and the Puritans, who had a 
majority in the House of Commons, from which 
Roman Catholics were kept out by the oath of 
supremacy exacted from the members, began to call 
for the death of Mary. After she had been about 
nineteen years a captive, a plot, with which the 
watchful Secretary of State, Walsingham, became, 
by means of spies and intercepted letters, early 
acquainted, was formed by Anthony Babington and 
many other young Roman Catholics against Eliza- 
beth's life. A statute passed in 1585 had specially 
provided against plots made by or on behalf of 
any person claiming the crown, and had prescribed 
a mode of trial before a commission of peers, privy 
councillors, and judges. Mary was now charged with 
being accessory to Babington's plot, and was accord- 
ingly put on her trial before such a commission. She 
was found guilty, and was beheaded Feb. 8, 1587, in 
the hall of Fotheringhay Castle. In the preceding year 
she had sent word to Philip that she had bequeathed 
her prospective rights upon England to him, having 
set aside her son as being a Protestant. 

4. The Struggle with Spain. — In her dealings 
with foreign powers, Elizabeth was vacillating and 
faithless ; but capricious as her conduct often seemed, 
she was constant in her purpose of maintaining her 
independence and of avoiding open war. Philip had 
at first striven to keep on good terms with her, but the 
Queen being gradually drawn on by her more Protes- 
tant ministers and subjects, Spain and England entered 
upon a course of bickering, and underhand acts of 
hostility : Elizabeth from time to time aiding Philip's 
revolted subjects, the Protestants o^ the Netherlands \ 



icxxi.] THE STRUGGLE WITH SPAIN. 187 

Philip encouraging the malcontents both in England 
and Ireland, and planning an invasion which wab 
constantly deferred. At last, in 1585, the Queen, 
having openly aUied herself with the people of the 
Netherlands, who had formed themselves into the 
commonwealth of the United Provinces^ sent out to 
their aid an expedition, commanded by the Earl cf 
Leicester. This expedition did not effect anything ; 
an engagement before Zutphen is memorable, because 
it cost the life of Sir Philip Sidney, who for his talents 
and his virtues was the darling of the nation. It is 
told of him that having left the field with what proved 
a mortal wound, he asked for some drink. But as he 
lifted the bottle to his lips, he saw a dying soldier, 
who was being carried by, glance wistfully at it. Sidney 
gave it to him untasted, saying, " Thy necessity is yet 
greater than mine." The strife with Spain was in 
great measure fomented and kept up by a set of men 
much of the stamp of the old Vikings, a passion for 
maritime adventure having taken possession of Eng- 
land. Martin Frobisher and John Davis have left 
their names to the Straits which they discovered 
while seeking for the North-West passage — that is, a 
passage to Asia round the northern coast of America. 
Tohn Hawkins J of Plymouth, was one of the first 
Englishmen who engaged in the negro-slave trade, in 
which so little shame was seen that the Queen granted 
him a Moor as his crest in memory of it, and herself 
shared in the profits. Philip however was aggrieved 
♦ihereby, for Hawkins sold his slaves to the Spanish- 
American colonies, where the importation of negroes 
N2& illegal. Sir Walter Ralegh, of Devonshire, one of 
Elizabeth's favourites, attempted, though without per- 
manent success, to plant on the coasts of North America 
i colony which Elizabeth named Virginia, in honour 
jf herself, the " Virgin Queen ; " and by his colonists 
the practice of smoking tobacco was introduced into 
England. To Ralegh, according to the common tale» 



1 88 ELIZABETH. [chap 

belongs the credit of having first brought into Ireland 
the potato, a native production of America. Mosi 
famous of all is Francis Drake, also a Devonshire 
man by birth, who started in life as an apprentice in 
a Channel coaster. Drake was the first man who 
sailed in one voyage round the world. In an earlier 
expedition he had descried from the Isthmus of 
Panama the Pacific Ocean, as yet unknown to the 
English, and falling on his knees, had prayed for 
" life and leave once to sail an English ship in those 
seas." Though he started on his great voyage with 
five small vessels, he came home with only one, but 
that one was heavy laden with gold and jewels, the 
plunder of Spanish towns and ships. The Queen 
herself, regardless of the just complaints of Spain, 
partook of a banquet on board Drake's ship, and 
there knighted the bold adventurer. Drake and most 
of his fellows were a strange mixture of explorer, pirate, 
and knight-errant ; Spain was the foe of their religion, 
and the cruelties often inflicted upon English Protes- 
tants on Spanish soil served as some excuse for the 
lawless doings of the rovers. To spoil and burn the 
Spanish towns in the New World, to waylay and 
capture the gold and silver laden ships that sailed 
to Spain, were at once profitable and, in their eyes, 
virtuous acts. Even after the Queen had sent troops 
into the Netherlands, she still hung back from en- 
gaging vigorously in war ; but the adventurers whose 
exploits she sanctioned or winked at had no such 
hesitation. Drake, in retahation for a recent seizure 
by the Spaniards of English ships and sailors, plun- 
dered Vigo, and passing on to the West Indies, 
stormed and put to ransom the towns of San 
Domingo and Cartagena. In 1587, when Philip was 
about to invade England, Drake, with six of the 
Queen's ships and twenty-four privateers, entered 
the harbours of Cadiz and Coruna, and destroyed 
the ships and great part of the stores there ; in his 



xxxi.] THE SPANISH ARMADA. 189 

own phrase, he "singed the Spanish King's beard." 
The threatened invasion, though delayed by Drake, 
was actually attempted the next year. A mighty 
naval force, known by its Spanish name of Armada 
— that is, Fleet — was collected at Lisbon, and the 
flower of Spain joined in the enterprise, which, 
being undertaken at the instance of the Pope, Sixtus 
v., was looked on as a holy war. Philip's general, 
Alexander Farnese^ Duke of Parma, had another fine 
army ready in the neighbourhood of Nieuport and 
Dunkirk, for whose protection on its passage to 
England the Armada, commanded by the Duke oj 
Medina Sidonia, was to make its way through the 
Channel to the North Foreland. Charles, Lord Howard 
of Effingha^n, commanded the English fleet, and with 
him were Drake, Hawkins, Frobisher, and others like 
them. The Queen, who had believed to the last in 
the possibility of peace, had been slow and sparing 
in her preparations. There were only thirty-four ships 
of the royal navy ; the rest were furnished by the 
seaport towns, or by noblemen, gentlenien, and mer- 
chants. London is said to have supplied double the 
number of ships and men requested of it. The forces 
of the country were rapidly mustered, an army of 
16,000 men, under the command of Leicester, being 
assembled at Tilbury to cover London \ and the mass 
of the English Roman Catholics came forward as 
zealously as anybody else, for though they might 
have invited foreign aid for Mary of Scotland's sake, 
they were not minded deliberately to make their 
country over to Philip. But everything depended on 
the fleet ; for full of spirit as the land forces were, 
they were untried men, ill-fitted to cope with the 
veteran troops of Spain. On the iQth July, Howard, 
who was at Plymouth, learned that the Armada — 
about a hundred and fifty sail — was oft the Cornish 
coast ; and coming out with about sixty or seventy 
ships, he hung upon the enemy's rear. Fresh vessels 



I90 ELIZABETH. [chap 

joined him daily until he mustered a hundred and 
forty. His plan was, not to come to close quarters 
with the huge fleet, which advanced up the Channel 
in the form of a half-moon, but to follow and 
harass it with his small vessels, which, sailing twice 
as fast as the Spaniards, could advance and retreat 
as they chose. Medina Sidonia, fighting as he sailed 
along, anchored on the 27th in Calais roads. To 
drive him out, at midnight on the 28th eight ships were 
fired, and sent drifting with wind and tide among the 
Spaniards, who, seized with a panic, cut their cables, 
and ran out to sea in disorder. At daybreak the 
scattered fleet was attacked by Howard, Drake, and 
Lord Henry Seymour, and a hot fight took place oflf 
Gravelines. Though the Spaniards fought gallantly, in 
seamanship and gun-practice they were inferior to their 
adversaries, and their floating castles were no match for 
the active little Enghsh vessels. Had not the Queen's 
ill-timed parsimony kept her fleet insufficiently supplied 
with powder, the Armada would have been destroyed. 
As it was, Sidonia fled away into the North Sea. 
" There was never anything pleased me better," wrote 
Drake to Walsingham, *' than seeing the enemy flying 
with a southerly wind to the northwards. With the 
grace of God, if we live, I doubt not ere it be long 
so to handle the matter with the Duke of Sidonia 
as he shall wish himself at St. Mary Port among 
his orange- trees." With part of the fleet, Howard and 
Drake clung to their enemy till their scanty provisions 
ran short. *' Notwithstanding that our powder and shot 
was well near all spent," wrote Howard, " we set on a 
brag countenance and gave him chase, as though we 
had wanted nothing, until he had cleared our own coast 
and some part of Scodand." Even then the misfor- 
tunes of the Armada were only begun ; the gale rose 
to a storm, scattering the ships about in the seas of 
Scotland and Ireland, which were almost unknown 
to the Spaniards ; and only fifty-four vessels lived to 



zxxi,] THE EARL OF ESSEX. 191 

creep shattered home. The English rejoiced, though 
modestly, over their success. To them and to all 
Protestants it seemed that Heaven had fought for 
them. 

5 The Earl of Essex. — Leicester^ dying in the 
midst of the rejoicing, was succeeded in the Queen's 
favour by Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, whose 
father, Walter, Earl of Essex, was noted for an adven- 
turous but unsuccessful attempt to subdue and colonize 
Ulster. Young Essex, gallant but headstrong, acquit- 
ted himself brilliantly as the leader of an expedition 
which took the town of Cadiz ; but he was not so 
successful in the Loid Lieutenancy of Ireland, to 
which he was appointed that he might subdue the 
rebel Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone. The Queen found 
fault with his conduct, upon which Essex, believing 
that lie was being undermined by his rivals at court, 
and presuming on Elizabeth's fondness for him, left 
his post unbidden, and abruptly presented himself 
before her. But Elizabeth, rejecting his excuses, sent 
out Lord Mountjoy to bring Ireland into order ; while 
Essex was deprived of his offices, and ordered into 
confinement in his own house. For a time he lived 
quietly, but, finding *-bat his eneinies were bent on his 
ruin, he determined to try to get back his power by 
force. With a view to removing the Queen's advisers, 
he gathered his friends round him, and marched into 
the City, trusting that the Londoners would take up 
arms in his behalf. But no one stirred to help him 
and it was with difficulty that he escaped to his house, 
where he surrendered. He was found guilty of treason, 
and, favourite of the Queen though he had been, was 
beheaded in 1601, at the age of thirty-three. Tyrone, 
notwithstanding that an armament was sent from Spain 
to his aid, was reduced by Mountjoy to submission, 
and received a pardon. 

6. Monopolies. — One great abuse of the time 
was the practice of the Crown granting to favoured 



I9« ELIZABETH |chap, 

persons monopolies^ that is, the exc'usive right of deal- 
ing in some particular article. Thus Essex had had 
a monopoly of sweet wines, from which he drew the 
gred,ter part of his income ; and he had been driven 
nearly desperate when, during his disgrace, the Queen 
refused to continue it to him, saying that ** a restive 
horse must be broken into the ring by stinting him 
of his provender." In 1601 a list of these monopolies 
was read out in Parliament. " Is not bread among 
the number?" said a member, adding a prediction 
that at any rate it would be there soon. Elizabeth, 
though imperious, knew how to yield gracefully, and 
seeing what a ferment was being raised, she sent word 
that she would revoke or suspend her obnoxious 
patents. A deputation was sent from the Commons 
to convey their thanks to the Queen, who made a 
speech in answer. ** Though," she wound up, " you 
have had, or may have, many princes more mighty 
and wise sitting in this seat, yet you never had, 
or shall have, any that will be more careful and 
loving." 

7. Death of Elizabeth. — Queen Elizabeth died 
at Richmond, in the seventieth year of her age, March 
24, 1603. Robert Cecil, her chief minister, affirmed 
that she declared by signs that King James VI. of 
Scotland should succeed her. This is not certain, but 
at any rate James was proclaimed King of England. 

8. The East India Corrpany. — On the 31st 
December, 1600, a charter of privileges was granted 
to a recently formed company of London merchants 
trading to the East Indies This was the famous 
East India Company^ and from this sprang the 
British dominion in India. 



XXXII.] JAMES I. 193 



CHAPTER XXXII 

JAMES I. 

James J, (i) — Ralegh sentenced to death; imprisonment 
and death of Arabella Stuart (2) — Puritans ; Roman 
Catholics; the Gunpowder Plot {'^)— James's favour- 
ites ; beheading of Ralegh; strife between King and 
Parliament ; Bacon ; the proposed Spanish marriage 
(4) — death of fames ; his children; Great Britain 
(5) — plantatio7i of Ulster; baronets (6) — colonies and 
voyages {7) — translations of the Bible (8) — learning and 
literature {())— poetry and the drama (10). 

I. House of Stuart. James I., 1603 — 1625. 

— According to the will of Henry VIII. the crown 
should have gone to the descendants of Mary, Duchess 
of Suffolk J but James VI. of Scotland, son of Mary 
Stuart and her second husband Lord Darnley, was the 
nearest heir by birth, the nation was willing to accept 
him, and after his coronation an Act of Parliament 
was passed declaring his right. His birth being the 
strongest point in his favour, it became his interest to 
encourage the new doctrine of " divine right'' that is, 
the belief that an hereditary prince derives his autho- 
rity from Heaven alone, and that therefore no laws can 
limit it, or take it from him. These dignified preten- 
sions accorded little with the character and appearance 
of James ; for he was ungainly in person, unkingly in 
bearing, so timorous that he shuddered at a drawn 
sword ; and though good-natured and well-meaning, 
he had few qualities of a ruler. Yet he was clever 
in his own way, and his learning — especially in 
theology — was considerate. He had been brought 
up in the Reformed Church of Scotland, which in 



194 JAMES L [CHAP. 

1592 had been placed under the Presbyterian system, 
that is, it was governed by courts of ministers and 
elders, who were called presbyters. James 1 owever 
was already working for the restoration in his own 
country of episcopacy, and he grew attached to the 
English Church on finding that its clergy treated him 
more respectfully than the Scots ministers had ever 
done. " No bishop, no King," became his maxim, 
and he soon learned to hate the English Puritans, 
thinking that he should find them as troublesome as 
their Scottish brethren. 

2. Arabella Stuart. — In the first year of this 
reign, Sir Walter Ralegh was condemned to death on 
a charge of having conspired to raise to the throne, 
by the help of Spain, Arabella Stuart, first cousin 
of James. He was however reprieved, and spent 
thirteen years as a prisoner in the Tower. Arabella, 
having had no share in the plot, was unmolested until 
eight years later, when she had privately married 
William Seymour^ a descendant of the Duchess of 
Suffolk. This union of two possible pretenders to 
the throne gave alarm ; and Arabella was arbitrarily 
shut up in the Tower, where she became insane and 
died. 

3. Puritans and Roman Catholics. The 
Gunpowder Plot. — Early in 1604, a conference 
between dignitaries of the Church and leading 
Puritan divines was held before the King at Hampton 
Court. Some slight alterations were made in the 
Prayer-book, and a new translation of the Bible was 
ordered. This was finished in 161 1, and is still our 
^^ Authorized Version.^' The Puritans were not satisfied, 
for, with a few exceptions, the practices to which they 
objected were retained, and no deviation from the 
established order was tolerated. Nothing shor! of ex- 
cluding from the Church all doctrines but their own 
would have fully satisfied the Puritans ; but the way in 
which they were rebuked and bro^vbeaten by the King 



XXXII.] THE GUNPOWDER PLOT. 195 

and the bishops was not likely to soothe theni. James 
felt proud of having argued them down. " If this 
be all they have to say," he observed triumphantly, " 1 
shall make them conform themselves, or I will harr) 
them out of the land." And in fact about three hundred 
refractory clergymen were turned out of their livings. 
As for the Roman Catholics, who had been led to 
form hopes of some indulgence from James, they were 
embittered by a proclamation banishing their priests. 
For this a fearful vengeance was devised. Robert 
Catesby, a Roman Catholic gentleman, proposed to a 
few trusty friends to blow up the Parliament House 
with gunpowder on the day the King was to open 
the session. King, Lords, and Commons thus dis- 
posed of, some of the confederates were to raise 
the Roman Catholic gentry, and proclaim one of the 
King's younger children as the new sovereign ; for 
the eldest, Prince Henry, would, it was expected, 
accompany his father and perish with him. Before 
the scheme was complete, James had the laws against 
*' Popish recusants " (that is, those who refused to 
come to church) enforced in all their harshness ; 
and these severities only spurred on the plotters. 
A cellar under the House of Lords was hired, and 
barrels of gunpowder there laid under faggots and 
coals. The task of firing the mine was deputed to Guy 
or Guido Faukes, an Englishman who had served on 
the Spanish side in the Netherlands. The number of 
the conspirators was gradually raised to thirteen ; their 
last ally, F^-ancis Tresham, seems to have b-en the 
cause of their ruin. Everjrthing was ready against the 
opening of the session, which was fixed for the 5th 
November, 1605, when Tresham's brother-in-law Lord 
Mounteagle^ also a Roman Catholic, was warned by 
an anonymous letter to keep away from Parli<tment 
This he showed to Cecil, Earl of Salisbury ; investi- 
gation followed, and about midnight, on the eve of 
•he 5th November, Faukes was seized in the cellar. 



196 JAMES I. (CH.\p 

On hearing of this, the chief conspirators fled, but 
were soon killed or taken. Catesby was among the 
slain ; Tresham died in prison ; and '.he survivors, in- 
cluding Faukes, were put to a traitors death. Catesby's 
intended crime bore bitter fruit for those he had hoped 
to serve, as the " Gujipcnvder Treason " deepened the 
iiatred felt by the EngHsh in general for the Church of 
Rome, and put an end for centuries to come to any 
chance of relief for the Roman Catholics. New and 
more severe laws were made against " Popish recu- 
sants," and a new oath of allegiance was imposed. 
This oath caused a division among the Roman 
Catholics, ^ome taking it, others, at the bidding of 
Pope Paul v., refusing to do so. x\s James was a 
very learned man, and fond of controversy, especially 
on theological matters, but was not disposed to per- 
secution, the laws against the Roman Catholics were, 
much to the dissatisfaction of the Puritans, not always 
fully executed. 

4. Government of James. — After the death 
of Salisbury in 16 12, King James gave his confidence 
to a young Scottish favourite, Robert Carr^ whom he 
afterwards created Earl of Somerset. Somerset mixed 
himself up in scandalous and criminal doings, which 
not only led to his own ruin, but reflected discredit 
upon his master. After Somerset's disgrace, the royal 
favour passed to George Vtlliers, created successively 
Earl, Marquess, and Duke of Buckvigham, a handsom.e 
young Englishman, whom James nicknamed " Steenie," 
and by whom he allowed himself to be treated with 
Hide familiarity. Meanwhile the King's rule did not 
please his subjects. His foreign policy was unpopular ; 
for, instead of placing himself at the head of the 
Protestant party throughout Europe, he sought the 
alliance of Spain ; and this leaning to the great Roman 
Catholic power soon began to rouse discontent Id 
1616 Ralegh was let out of prison, and got leave tc 



xxxii.] GOVERNMENT OF JAMES. 197 

go on an expedition to Guiana, there to open a gold 
mine he averred he knew of. There was risk of strife 
with the Spaniards, who claimed the New World and 
its treasures for their own ; but the desire of gold 
overpowered the King's habitual caution. Ralegh, 
though warned that if he did any hurt to a Spaniard 
his head should pay for it, believed that success would 
excuse disobedience. When his fleet reached the 
Orinoco, he sent a party up the river without distinct 
orders not to fight. They came into conflict with the 
neighbouring Spanish settlers, whose town they burned ; 
but they did not find the mine. The Spaniards, not 
without reason, complained of Ralegh as a pirate; and 
on his return, empty-handed, he was beheaded, not 
avowedly for any fresh fault he had committed, but 
on his old sentence. The nation was indignant, for 
he was looked on as a sacrifice to the vengeance of 
Spain. Neither did James manage home aflairs well; 
he was ever at variance with his Parliaments, they 
striving after more freedom, he aiming at absolute 
power. Not that he really wanted more power than 
the Tudors had exercised ; but there was this difference 
between him and Elizabeth, that her policy had in the 
main satisfied the wishes of the nation, while his ran 
counter to them. The Parliament of 1614 has had 
the epithet of " addled " fixed upon it, because ere it 
had passed a single Act the King dissolved it in anger; 
after which he supplied himself with money by a 
"benevolence." In 1621 a Parliament met which 
boldly attacked monopohes, corruption, and other 
abuses ; the Lord Chancellor, Francis Bacon, famous 
as one of our greatest philosophers, was charged by 
the Commons with taking bribes, and thereupon was 
sentenced by the Lords to oe for ever incapable of 
holding any office. But the Commons had less success 
when they touched upon foreign affairs, which at that 
time were occupying everybody's thoughts. In 16 19 
the Protestants of Bohnnia^ then in revolt, had set up 



198 JAMES I. [CH\P. 

as their King the Elector Palatine Fredenck V.^ who was 
the head of the Protestant princes of Germany, and 
the son-in-law of King James. The Emperor, the 
Roman Catholic princes, and the Spaniards joined 
together against Frederick, who soon lost, not only his 
new kingdom, but his own German lands as well 
James wished to recover the inheritance of his 
daughter's husband, but still he would not break with 
Spain, because he wanted to marry his son Charles^ 
Prince of Wales, to the Infanta Maria, daughter of 
King Philip III. of Spain. When the Commons drew 
up a petition praying him to make war upon Spain and 
to marry his son to a Protestant, he told them they had 
no right to meddle in such matters ; and when they 
replied by protesting their right to treat of any busi- 
ness they pleased, he tore with his own hand the pro- 
testation out of their Journal Book, and dissolved the 
Parliament. The unpopular scheme of a Spanish 
marriage was still pursued. The Prince, accompanied 
by the favourite Buckingham, travelled in disguise to 
Madrid to see his intended bride; but, though a 
marriage treaty was concluded, in the end it was, to 
the great joy of the English, broken off. Charles and 
his friend came home out of temper, and bent upon 
war. 

5. Death of James. — King James died of ague, 
March 27, 1625. He was the author of many works 
in prose and verse, notably of a treatise against the 
practice of smoking tobacco. His wife was Anne oj 
Denmark, and his children wtx^ Henry Frederick, Prince 
of Wales, who died in 1 6 1 2 ; Charles, who succeeded 
to the throne ; and Elizabeth, the so-called Queen oJ 
Bohemia, vf'iit oi Frederick V., Elector Palatine. James 
took the title of Ki?ig of Great Britain, and had a 
national flag devised, on which the crosses of the 
patron saints of England and Scotland, St. George and 
St. Andrew, were b' ended — the first " Union Jack'' ; 
— but England and Scotland, though they had for the 



XXXII.] COLONIES AND VOYAGES. 19$ 

time fallen to one and the same sovereign remained 
otiierwise entirely separate. 

6. Plantation of Ulster. — A few years aftei 
James's accession, the Earl of Tyrone, together with 
another great chieftain of tlie north of Ireland, 
Roderick 0' Doniiell, Earl of Tyrconnel, having engaged, 
or being suspected of having engaged, in a conspiracy, 
fled to foreign parts, and were attainted of treason. 
On their outlawry, and the rebellion and death in 1608 
of a third chieftain, Sir Cahir O'Dogharty^ Lord ,of 
Innishovven, the greater part of Ulster was forfeited 
to the Crown, which thereupon granted out land in it 
to Scotch and English settlers, and these new-comers 
soon made it the most flourishing district in Ireland. 
This system of " planting " was extended to Leinster ; 
but, with apparent good, much evil was done. Many 
of the native owners were turned out, and several 
septs, or clans, were transplanted to other parts of the 
island. A sense of injustice rankled in the hearts of 
the Irish ; and they sighed for their old lords, tyrants 
and oppressors though these had been. In order, so 
he professed, to raise funds for the protection of the 
Ulster settlers, Jam.es created an order of hereditary 
knights called Baronets, and required of all who 
received this new title a sum of money, as much as 
would support thirty soldiers for three years. 

7. Colonies and Voyages. — In 1607, some 
adventurers sent out by a London Company of Mer- 
chants founded in Virginia Javie: Town, the first 
permanent settlement of Englishmen in North 
America. In 1620, a body of Independents, who had 
been driven from England to Holland by the laws 
against nonconformity, sailed for North America, 
and settled in New England, at a place to which they 
gave the name of Plymouth. These are the most 
ancient of those colonies which afterwards, throwing 
off the rule of the mother-country, formed the United 
States of America, Fresh efforts were made in this 



joo JAMES I. [CHAP 

reign to find a North- West passage. Henry Hudson in 
1610 sailed through the Strait and explored the Bay 
now called by his name. In those seas he perished, 
for his crew, which had suffered much from want of 
provisions, mutinied, and sent him and eight of his 
followers adrift in an open boat. Nothing more was 
heard of them. Further discoveries were made by 
Thomas Button, the first navigator who reached tlie 
eastern coast of America through Hudson's Strait, and 
by Robert Bylot and William Baffin, who discovered 
and penetrated to the most northern extremity ol 
Baffin's Bay. 

8. Translations of the Bible.— High among 
the early English Reformers stands William Tyndale, 
a Gloucestershire man, who, moving about from 
town to town in Germany and the Netherlands, de- 
voted himself to translating the Scriptures. Wycliffe's 
translation had been made from the Latin, and was 
full of Latin idioms. Tyndale, being a good Hebrew 
and Greek scholar, was able to translate from the 
originals. He was moreover a master of English, and 
his version of the New Testament, printed at Worms 
in 1525, may be said to have fixed the form of our 
language. To some of his translations he appended 
notes and prologues, partly of his own composition, 
partly taken from Luther. Archbishop Warham, 
Cranmer's predecessor, endeavoured to stop the 
circulation of Tyndale's Testament by buying up 
abroad and destroying all the copies which could be 
procured — a proceeding which only encouraged the 
foreign printers to send forth fresh editions — and more 
than once Testaments were publicly burned in London. 
Tyndale came to his end in 1536, being put to ieath 
near Brussels as a heretic. In the next year his friend 
Rogers, the first martyr under Queen Mary, brought 
out an edition of the Bible, in which the New Testa- 
naent and part of the O'd were Tyndale's work, the 
rest being reprinted from a version by Miles Coverdale 



xxxii.l LEARNING AND LITERATURL 201 

A new edition of this Bible, revised by Coverdale 
under the patronage of Thomas Cromwell, was printed 
in 1539, and reprinted in 1540 with a preface by 
Cranmer. This was the Great Bible, which was set 
up in every parish church in England. Upon this and 
other versions of the Tudor reigns was founded the 
Bishops' Bible, edited by Archbisliop Parker ; and 
although in the preparation of the present Authorized 
Version, or Ki?ig James's Bible, extraordinary care was 
bestowed upon its translation from the originals, the 
eminent divines employed on the task adhered as 
closely as possible to the language and style of its 
predecessors. The lai^guage is therefore rather that 
of the time of Henry VIII. than of James L, and it 
has had a great effect in fixing the standard of the 
English speech and preserving it from modern cor- 
ruptions. The Puritans used by preference the Geneva 
Bible^ an edition with side-notes, the work of Pro- 
testant refugees at Geneva in the time of Queen 
Mary. The spreading abroad of the Scriptures 
affected the whole course of religion, politics, and 
literature. "Men turned eagerly to the Bible for light 
on the religious questions of the day ; the Puritans 
above all studied it till its phrases became house- 
hold words in their mouths, and they learned to think 
of themselves as the successors of the Chosen People 
of old. 

9. Learning and Literature. — In the sixteenth 
century, the study of the ancient Greek language, till 
then almost unknown, was introduced into England. 
Willm?fi Grocy?i, who, having acquired a knowledge 
0^ Greek in Italy, had begun to teach it at Oxford 
about the end of the preceding century, is honoured as 
" the patriarch of English learning^ He and a knot 
of like-minded men in 15 10 brought over the great 
scholar of the Netherlands, Erasmus, to teach at Cam- 
bridge. Thomas Lincuje, eminent in medicine, who 
was the first president of the College of Physicians^ also 



e64 TAMES I. [chap, 

held high rank among men of learning. One ol 
(jrocyn's pupils, Sir Thovias More — the same More 
whom Henry VIII. sent to the scatibid — is the authoi 
of UtopiOy a work in Latin, descriptive of an imaginary 
commonwealth, from which the epithet of '' Utopian " 
is now applied to fanciful political schemes. Although 
^^ducation was not general, yet in a select circle of 
scholarly taste or exalted rank the standard was hig) 
Lady Jane Grey, who spoke, as well as wrote, Greek, 
Latin, Italian, and French, and also understood 
Bebrew and Arabic, was especially renowned for her 
learning. \Vhen found at home reading Plato, while 
the rest of the household were out hunting, she 
accounted for her love of books by saying that her 
parents were so harsh and severe, that she was never 
happy except when with her tutor, who was always 
gentle and pleasant. Henry VIII., himself a good 
scholar, had his children carefully taught. Sir John 
Cheke, one of the tutors of Edward VI., was the first 
professor of Greek in the University of Cambridge. He 
was a Protestant, but in Mary's reign recanted to save 
himself from burning. Queen Elizabeth could speak 
Greek fairly, Latm fluently, and French and Italian as 
readily as her mother-tongue ; and these acquirements 
she kept up after she had ascended the throne, reading 
with her tutor Roger Ascham for some hours daily. 
Among the learned men who gracei the reigns of 
Elizabeth and James was William Comden, author of 
the Britannia, an account of the British Isles written in 
Latin. He founded in the University of Oxford an 
historical lecture, still called after him the Camden 
professorship. Francis Bacon, successively created 
Baron Verulam and Viscount St. Allans, who has 
already been spoken of as Lord Chancellor, stands 
intellectuaHy, though not morally, among the greatest 
of mankind. The philosophical work on which his 
Came rests is in Latin ; but to ordinary readers he. is 



xxxiij POETRY AND THE DRAMA. 203 

best known by his English Essays, a name which 
he was the first to give to that species of composition. 
The finest of the Elizabethan prose authors was 
Richard H&oktr^ Master of the Temple, who defended 
the established form of Church government against 
the Puritans. Two of Elizabeth's favourite courtiers 
held literary rank — Sir Philip Sidney^ author of the 
Arcadia, a half chivalrous, half pastoral romance, which, 
tliough to modern taste tedious, was long exceedingly 
l)opular; and Sir Walter Ralegh, who, while a 
prisoner in the Tower, employed himself in the 
laborious undertaking of writing a History of the 
World. This however he never finished. Sidney is 
also the author oi An Apology for Poetry, in which he 
defends poetry, plays, and fictitious writing generally 
against the attacks of the Puritan party. Much both 
^'f the poetry and prose of the time is marred by a 
strained and fantastic style, of which the great master 
wsis/ohn Lylyy from whose story of Euphues it has got 
its name of Euphuism, 

10. Poetry and the Drama.— ^'/V Thomas 
Wyattj father of the insurgent Wyatt of Queen Mary's 
reign, and the ill-fated Earl of Surrey, who died oji 
the scaffold in 1547, were the leaders of a school o' 
poets who followed Italian models. Surrey, a grace- 
ful and polished ^^Titer, though hardly a man of 
genius, was the first to use, in his translation of the 
vEneid, what we now call blank verse. To the Italian 
school also belonged the great Elizabethan poet, 
Edmund Spenser, author of the Ecury Quern, a 
long though unfinished tale of chivalrous adventure, 
veiling a religious and political allegory. Spenser's 
poem represents the wide range of thought of the 
Elizabethan age — in it the old knightly romances are 
mixed up with fictions borrowed from the classical 
poets, and with the Protestant ideas of his own time. 
His was the form of Protestantism which adored 
Elizabeth and hated the power of Rome, and Mary 



204 JAMES I. [CHAP 

Queen of Scots as the championess of that powei, 
but which had nothing of the Puritan austerity 
and hostihty to episcopacy. The age was fertile in 
poets, among whom Sidney may again be mentioned 
as a writer of graceful love poems ; and some of the 
most spirited of the English ballads belong to the 
reigns of Elizabeth and James. Dramatic art 
was now making an advance. Of the earliest 
attempts, the mysteries and- miracle plays ^ we have 
specimens as old as the time of Edward III. These, 
which were acted in churchyards or streets, were 
rude representations of Biblical stories, and in the 
days of few books and little general education, were 
thought useful for teaching Scripture histor}' to the 
people. Next came the moralities, allegorical dramas, 
which were distinguished by the introduction of a 
character called the Vice^ who played a part much like 
that of Punch in the puppet-shows. The first regular 
English comedy, Ralph Roister Doister, was composed 
probably as early* as the reign of Henry VIII., by 
Nicholas Udal, master first of Eton, and afterwards of 
Westminster School, who was wont to write plays for 
his scholars to act. This piece gave a picture of the 
manners of the London gallants and citizens. Under 
Elizabeth the taste spread; the first theatres, rude 
buildings, open, except above the stage, to the 
weather, were erected ; and a school of playwrights 
sprang up. Some of these early dramatists show 
great power ; but they have all been thrown into the 
shade by William Shakspere, the greatest name in 
English literature. Little is known of his life beyond 
th^ mere outline. Born in 1564 at Stratford-upon- 
Avon, where his father was a well-to-do townsman, he 
became an actor and playwright, holding a share in 
the Blackfriars theatre, which was built in 1576. 
He was also one of the proprietors of the Globe 
theatre on the Bankside, which was built in 1594- 
Retiring in his latter days to his native town, he there 



xxxn. CHARLES I. 205 

died in 1616. In the deep knowledge of human 
nature which his dramas display, no other has ever 
approached him ; and he is further distinguished by 
his healthy moral tone, and by the national spirit 
which pervades his historical plays. In them is ex- 
pressed the fearless temper of the generation which 
drove back the Armada, and its pride in its sovereign 
and its country, " this royal throne of -kings, this 
sceptred isle." After Shakspere, though far below 
him, stands Benjamin^ or as he is always called, Ben^ 
/onson. Other contemporary dramatists of repute 
were Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher^ who wrote 
in concert, and so identified themselves with each 
other that it is almost impossible to distinguish their 
respective shares in their joint work. They represent 
the tone of thought and the type of men of the court 
of James I. Fletcher appears also to have had the 
honour of being a coadjutor of Shakspere ; the greater 
part of the play of Henry VIII., which goes under 
Shakspere's name, is believed to have been the work of 
Fletcher. After Beaumont's death in 16 15, Fletcher 
was assisted by Philip Mas singer, another of the great 
dramatic poets of the Elizabethan school. Massinger, 
who died in the reign of Charles I., is best remem- 
bered by his character of Sir Giles Overreach. This was 
meant for Sir Giles Mompesson, a fraudulent mono- 
polist, who was impeached by the CommoiiS in 162 1. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

CHARLES I. 

Charies I.j Henrietta Maria; Petition of Right; murder 
of Buckingham ; Sir John Eliot {\) — Wentworth and 
Laud; the Star Chamber {2) — ship-money (3) — the 
Long Parliament ; beheading of Strafford (4)— the 
frisk Rebellior. the Gt wd Remo 'istrance ; the Fi'd^ 



ao6 CHART.ES 1. fcHAP 

Members ; th( Civil War, Presbyterians and Tnae- 
pendents; Oliver Cromwell ; battles of Marston 
Moor and Naseby ; Charles given up by the Scots (5; 
— the Covenant ; beheading of Laud (6) — the army ; 
the Second Civil War (7)—" Prides Purge''; the High 
Court of Justice (8) — tHal and beheading of the King 
(9) — his children ,10). 

1. Charles I., 1625-1649. The Petition of 
Right. — Shortly after his accession the young King 
married Henrietta Maria, daughter of the great Henry 
IV. of France — an alliance which, though less hateful 
than one with Spain, was yet not liked, as the bride 
was a Roman Catholic. Charles himself, dignified 
in his bearing, well conducted, and religious, was wel- 
comed as a great improvement on his predecessor ; but 
events soon showed that his father's maxims of arbitrary 
authority had sunk deep into his heart. The strife 
between King and Parliament began at once ; for 
while the King wanted money for war with Spain, the 
Parliament wanted redress of grievances and the re- 
moval of Buckingham, who was more powerful than 
ever. After dissolving two ParKaments within the 
space of a year, Charles had recourse to arbitrary 
methods of raising money, until a petty and mis- 
managed war on behalf of the French Protestants so 
increased his difficulties that he had to summon a 
third Parliament. This, by granting him five subsidies 
(taxes levied on every subject according to the value 
of his lands or goods), obtained his assent to its 
PeHtion of Right, by which the recent illegal practices 
— arbitrary taxes and imprisonment, forced billetings of 
soldiers upon the people, exercise of martial law — were 
condemned (June 7, 1628) Emboldened by victory, 
the Commons presented a remonstrance against the 
excessive power of Buckingham as the chief cause of 
the national caalmities ; — words which had a terrible 
effect, for about two months later the Duke, then at 
Portsmouth making ready for an expedition against 



v'xxiil.] WENTWORTH AND LAUD. J07 

France, was stabbed to death by one John Felton^ 
who thought by this crime to do his country service. 
Though the Duke was gone, other causes of strife re- 
mained. Charles levied of his sole authority certain 
duties on exports and imports, called tonnage and 
poundage ; and this the Commons asserted to be 
contrary to the Petition of Right. Religious grievances 
came in to embitter the dispute. The King favoured 
and promoted clergymen who taught doctrines differing 
from those in which most Protestants of that genera- 
tion had been brought up ; new ceremonies, or rather 
old ones revived, were introduced into the churches. 
All this put the Commons into an angry mood, and 
Charles tried to keep things quiet by ordering the 
House to adjourn. But when the Speaker rose to 
leave the chair, two members, Denzil Holies and 
Benjamin Valentine, held him down by force; the 
doors were locked, and amid shouts of " Aye ! Aye ! " 
Holies read out three resolutions which had been 
drawn up by Sh' John Eliot, the leader of the Oppo- 
sition party, — Whoever should bring in opinions dis- 
agreeing from the true and orthodox Church, whoever 
should advise the levying of tonnage and poundage 
without grant of Parliament, whoever should pay 
these duties, was to be accounted an enemy to the 
kingdom (March 2, 1629). Upon this the King 
again dissolved Parliament ; and Sir John EHot, with 
Holies and some other members who had " aided 
and abetted " him, were sent to prison, where Eliot, 
refusing to make any submission, was kept till his 
death. 

2. Wentworth and Laud. — Charles, now re- 
solving to govern, at least for the time, without Parlia- 
ments, found two ministers to serve his purpose — 
Thomas, Viscount Wentworth, better known by his 
later title of Earl of Strafford, and Willia?n Laud^ 
Bishop of London, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. 
These two laboured zealously to make their master 



2o8 CHARLES L [chap. 

absolute — a scheme which they spoke of among them- 
selves by the term of " Thorough** Wentworth was 
a wealthy Yorkshire landowner, who had been one 
of the most distinguished members of the Opposition 
in the Lower House, but having gone over to the 
King, had been raised to the Peerage, and made 
President of the Council of the Norths a tribunal which 
exercised special powers north of the Humber, and 
for which Lord Wentworth now obtained almost un- 
limited authority. He was next removed to Ireland, 
which lie governed with ability indeed, but in the 
most despotic manner Laud devoted himself to 
forcing the Puritans into conformity to the rules and 
ceremonies of the Church. Ready instruments were 
found in the Court of High Commission founded 
by Elizabeth, and in the more ancient Court of 
Star Chamber, so called because it sat in a room 
known by that name. The Star Chamber was a 
court of members of the Privy Council, together 
with the two Chief Justices, which had by degrees 
usurped a power of punishing anything that could be 
called a contempt of the King's authority. Extensive 
as the power of these courts had been before the ac- 
cession of Charles, they now stretched it still further, 
and became still more harsh and inquisitorial Puritans 
who had written books held libellous were objects of 
special rigour, and the Star Chamber, not content with 
fine and imprisonment, inflicted cruel and shameful 
punishments, which only served to excite admiration 
for the fortitude of the victims and hatred of the 
government. 

3. Ship- Money. — Meanwhile the King had to 
resort to various devices for raising money. He 
wanted a fleet, and his advisers bethought themselves 
that in time of war the maritime counties had occa- 
sionally been called upon to furnish ships. This had 
been done in Elizabeth's reign, and indeed once in 
his own. Accordingly he first demanded ships, QV 



XXXIII.] THE LONG PARLIAMENT. 2og 

money in lieu of them, from the towns and counties 
on the coast ; and then, going a step further, he leviea 
" ship-money " upon every shire. John Hampden^ 
a country gentleman of Buckinghamshire, refused, as 
did also some others, to pay his share. The sum 
was small, but on it turned the question whether 
the King or the House of Commons should be 
supreme; for if the King could take what money 
he pleased, he would soon be able to do what else 
he pleased. On the case being argued, the majority 
of the judges decided against Hampden ; but the 
arguments in favour of the lawfulness of the tax were 
so weak that Charles lost more than he gained by his 
victory, while Hampden's courage raised him high in 
the estimation of his countrymen. Ship-money con- 
tinued to be levied, but amid growing opposition. 

4. The Long Parliament. — In 1638, the yeai 
in which the decision in favour of ship-money was 
given, the Scots were driven into rebellion by the King 
attempting to force upon them a liturgy much like 
that of England. High and low pledged themselves 
by a bond or '' Covenant " to resist the innovations, 
and thus became known as Covenanters. Charles in 
1639 niarched against the insurgents, but, with an 
empty treasury and disaffected troops being unable 
to do anything, he was reduced to patch up a treaty. 
In hopes of obtaining money, he called, early in 1640, 
a Parliament, known as " the Short Parliaments^ which 
he dissolved after three and twenty days ; but by the 
renewal of the Scottish war and the invasion of Eng- 
land by a Scottish army, he was that same y(;ar con- 
strained to summon another, since famed as " the Long 
Parliament^ The Commons, led by the great orator 
[ohn Py?n, member for Tavistock, at once impeached 
of treason Strafford and Laud. Strafford was brought 
to trial; but as it was doubtful whether the offences 
charged against him amounted legally to high treason, 
the Commons, going in this againr^ Pym's wishes, 



2IO CHARLES L \chap 

dropped the impeachment, and a Bill of Attahider was 
passed, to which Charles in tears gave his assent. 
" Put not your trust in princes," was the Earl's ex- 
clamation. Strafford walked to the scaffold on Tower 
Hill bearing himself " more like a general at the 
head of an army than like a condemned man." As 
he passed by the window of Laud's prison-chambei, 
he paused to receive the Archbishop's blessing. Laud 
lifted up his hands to bestow it ; but, overcome with 
grief, he fell back fainting. " Farewell, my Lord," said 
the Earl, " God protect your innocency." Strafford 
was beheaded on the 12th May, 1641, and with him 
fell the system of government he had endeavoured to 
establish. The Star Chamber, the High Commission, 
and the Council of the North were abolished ; and 
the levies of ship-money were declared to have been 
illegal. The Parliament also secured itself by an Act 
providing that it should not be dissolved without its 
own consent. Ecclesiastical matters were still un 
settled, and on these disagreements arose, for there 
were many who, though willing to curtail the povvers 
of the Bishops, did not go with the extreme party 
which wished to do away with them altogether— to 
" cut them off root and branch," as the phrase was. 
Thus there grew up a moderate party, of which 
the foremost members were Lucius Carey, Viscount 
Falklafid, and Edward Hyde, afterv/ards created 
Earl of Clarendon. 

5. The Civil War. — Although Charles had now 
yielded so much that many began to turn towards hin:^ 
he was still mistrusted by Pym and his party. Wher, 
in the autumn of 1641, the Irish rose in rebellion an J 
slaughtered the Ulster colonists, some suspected, 
though unjustly, that Charles had himself stirred up 
this outbreak, which soon became a general insurrection 
of the Irish Roman Catholics. Pym and his friends 
in Parliament framed a " Grand RemonstranuJ' setting 
forth all the past grievances aganist the King, and 



xxxiil.] THE FIVE MEMBERS. 211 

urging on him the employment only of ministers whom 
the Parhament could trust. The Remonstrance was 
opposed by Hyde, Falkland, and the moderate party ; 
and a stormy debate ensued, which lasted from noon till 
two o'clock the next morning. A small majority carried 
the Remonstrance, but the debate waxed yet hotter 
when it was proposed to prmt it. Excited members 
handled their sword-hilts, and a fray seemed immi- 
nent, when Hampden's calm voice recalled them to 
reason (Nov. 22 and 23, 1641). The King's own vio- 
lence was his ruin. Attended by some five hundred 
armed men, he went, on the 4th Jan. 1642, to the 
House of Commons, there to seize Pym, Hampden, 
Holies, and two other leading members of the Opposi- 
tion, whom he had caused to be impeached of treason. 
Warning having been timely conveyed, the accused 
had withdrawn ; and when Charles demanded of the 
Speaker Lenthall whether they were there, Lenthall, 
falling on his knees, answered, " May it please your 
Majesty, I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to 
speak in this place, but as the House is pleased 
to direct me." Charles saw, as he expressed it, 
that " his birds were flown ; " and as he moved out of 
the House, cries of "Privilege! privilege!" followed 
him, for it was held that the King's proceedings were 
a breach of the privileges enjoyed by Parliament. Six 
days later Charles withdrew from London ; and upon 
his refusal to comply with the Parliament's demand 
that the control of the militia should be given up to 
it, men saw plainly that a civil war was at hand. Str 
fohn Hotham, governor of the strong town of Hully 
where there was a large magazine of arms, shut its 
gates against the King when he demanded admittance j 
and his conduct was approved by the Parliament, 
which proceeded to place the militia under the com- 
mand of Lords-Lieutenant appointed by itself. A 
majority of the Lords and many of the Commons 
joined the King ; both parties made ready to draw 



2ia CHARLES I [chap. 

the sword, and on the 22nd August, 1642, Charles 
set up at Nottingham his standard, which bore the 
motto, " Give Caesar his due,'* and called on his 
subjects to rally round him. The two parties in 
this struggle were distinguished as Royalists and 
Parlianuntarians, or more familiarly as Cavaliers and 
Roundheads. The last name is said by some to have 
been given because the extreme Puritans cropped 
their hair short, in opposition to the prevailing fashion 
of wearing it long. On the whole the north-west of 
England, then the wilder and less thickly-peopled 
part of the country, was for the King ; and the busier 
and wealthier south-east, with the city of London, was 
for the Parliament. Robert Devereux^ Earl of EsseXy 
son of Elizabeth's favourite, a soldier who had seen 
service in the Netherlands, was appointed commander 
in-chief of the Parliament army, and opposed tht 
King in person at Edgehill in Warwickshire, where, 
on the 23rd October, an indecisive battle, the first 
important action of the war, was fought. Things at 
first looked well for the King, whose cavalry gained 
many successes. Their leader. Prince Rupert^ a son 
of the Queen of Bohemia, was the terror of the Parlia- 
ment's raw levies ; but he was rash and headlong, 
and the licence of plunder he gave to his men brought 
discredit on his party. With artillery and ammunition 
Charles was ill provided, though the Queen, then in 
Holland, procured what she could with funds obtained 
by the sale of her own and the crown jewels. In 
February, 1643, she arrived with four ships, and landed 
at Bridlington, where the Parliamentary admiral Batten 
fired so hotly upon the house in which she was lodged 
that she had to take shelter in a neighbouring ditch. 
In June, the same year, the noble and blameless 
Hampden, who had proved one of the best of the Par- 
liament officers, was mortally wounded in a skirmish 
with Rupert at Chalgrove. Another man of note, of 
the opposite party, perished not long afterwards in 



ocxiiL] THE CIVIL WAR. 213 

the indecisive battle of Nnvbury (Sept. 20). This was 
Lord Falkland, who, though he had acted with the 
popular party against Strafford, had been led by his 
dislike of Puritan domination to separate himself 
from his old friends and to adhere to the King, who 
made him one of his Secretaries of State. To Falkland, 
whose one prayer was for peace, and who was often 
heard to exclaim that the war was breaking his heart, 
death came as a relief. About this time, when the King 
was on ihe whole gaining ground, the Parliament 
entered into alliance with the Scots, who in the begin- 
ning of 1644 sent an army to its aid. Charles mean- 
while maae a truce with the insurgent Roman Catholics 
in Ireland in order that he might bring over troops 
from thence, and summoned those of the Peers and 
Commons who adhered to his party to meet in Parlia- 
irient at Oxford, where they accordingly assembled. 
In the Parliament at Westminster, men of Presby- 
tenan opinions had hitherto been the prevailing party; 
but in \he army the sect of the Indepe?idents was gain- 
ing power. Both were opposed to episcopacy or prelacy \ 
but beyond that, they ceased to agree. The Presby- 
terians had a regular system of church government 
by councils of ministers and elders, and wished to 
enforce iheir doctrines throughout the land ; while the 
Independents looked on every congregation as an 
independent church, competent to direct itself without 
interference from any other power. To these latter 
belonged one of the most vigorous of the Roundhead 
officers, Oliver Cromwell, a Huntingdonshire gentle- 
man, and a member of Parliament, who raised in the 
Eastern counties a famous regiment of horse, tra- 
ditionally known as the Ironsides. Early in the war 
he had remarked to his cousin Hampden what a poof 
set of men were enlisted for the Parliament horse, 
unlikely to cope with the gallant gentlemen who com- 
posed the King's cavalry. "You must," he added, **get 
men of a spirit that is likely to go on as far as gentlemen 



ai4 CHARLES I. [cmai-, 

will go, or CISC you will be beaten still." Cromwell 
would enlist none but those whose hearts were in 
the cause, and who would submit to strict discipline, 
though he did not care to which of the many religious 
sects they belonged. " They were never beaten," he 
said afterwards. In 1643, it was in the Eastern counties 
alone, where Cromwell was serving under the Earl 
of Manchester^ that the Parliament cause decidedly 
throve, and the Eastern forces, raised and trained 
under Cromwell's influence, were soon able to push 
further north, joining with the Yorkshire leaders. Lord 
Fairfax and his son Sir Thomas, and the Scots. In 
the battle oi Marston Moor^ July 2, 1644, the Royal- 
ists, after a long and fierce contest, were routed by the 
allied English and Scots. Cromwell wrote in triumph 
how his men had worsted Rupert's renowned horse ; — 
" God made them as stubble to our swords." The 
victory placed the North in the power of the Parlia- 
ment-generals. Early the next year, the Independents 
in Parliament managed to oust the Earls of Essex 
and Manchester, neither of them men of genius, and 
to obtain the entire re-modelling of the army. Sir 
Thomas Fairfax^ who had been the mainstay of the 
Parliament cause in Yorkshire, and had won great 
credit at Marston Moor, received the chief com- 
mand, with Cromwell as his second. The "New- 
Model army," its ranks filled with the flower of the 
Puritan yeomen and workmen, inflicted another defeat 
upon the Royalists at Naseby^ June 14, 1645, ^o 
crushing as to render the King's cause thenceforth 
hopeless. Cliarles kept up the struggle till the following 
sprmg, when, in despair, he surrendered himself to 
the Scots army before Newark, and by it was subse- 
quently delivered up to the English Parliament (Jan. 
30, 1647). 

6. The Presbyterians. — In 1643 the Houses 
bound themselves, after the Scottish fashion, in a 
" Solemn Leagt'c ard Covenant " to " endeavour the 



ntxni,] THE SECOND CIVIL WAR. 215 

extirpation" of "popery" and " prelacy.*' This Coven- 
ant — the condition upon which they had obtained the 
aid of the Scots, whose hearts were set upon establish- 
ing in England their own form of church government 
— they ordered to be subscribed by all men in office, 
all beneficed clergy, and generally by the whole nation. 
On non-compliance, hundreds of clergymen were turned 
out of their livings. All the Royalist members were 
driven from the Universities, first from Cambridge, and 
then from Oxford. Short work was made with what 
the Puritans deemed " monuments of superstition," 
wherever such still remained ; altars, crosses, pictured 
windows were swept away or defaced. By an ordiiiatut 
of Parliament, as the Acts of the two Houses were 
called, the aged Laud, who since his impeachment 
had lain apparently forgotten in the Tower, was 
condemned for high treason, and beheaded January 
10, 1645 — an act of needless revenge, which did the 
Presbyterian party no credit. The use of the Book 
of Common Prayer, even in private families, was for- 
bidden ; and episcopacy gave way to the Presbyterian 
system, which however, owing to the subsequent rise 
of the Independents, was never fully established except 
in Middlesex and Lancashire. Large domains belong • 
ing to the Bishops and the Crown were seized and sold, 
and heavy fines were laid on the vanquished Cavaliers. 
7. The Second Civil War.— The King 
remained a prisoner, honourably treated, at Holmby 
House, near Northampton, for more than four months. 
Negotiations were proceeding between him and the 
Parliament, when the army took matters into its own 
hands, one Joyce, a cornet of Fairfax's guard, with a 
party of horse riding off to Holmby House, and 
bringing the King away. Charles asked Joyce by what 
authority he acted. " There is my commission," said 
the comet, pointing to his troopers. ''It is written 
in characters fair and legible enough," replied the 
King, smiling; and with littie reluctance, he let himself 



ai6 CHARLES I. (chap 

be carried off to the army, which, consisting mainly of 
Independents and other " sectaries," and objecting to 
have Presbyterianism forced upon it, was now the rival, 
not the servant, of Parliament. The soldiers had 
fought for liberty of conscience for themselves, and not 
simply to make Parliament supreme. Charles, filled 
with hope by the disunion of his adversaries, negotiated 
with all parties, Scots and English, Presbyterians and 
Independents, trying to play ofif one against the other. 
Cromwell and the chief officers wished to come to 
terms with him, provided they could secure the 
liberty of conscience they desired ; but it was hopeless 
to treat with a man who was not sincere in any of his 
negotiations. Moreover, the fiercer spirits among the 
soldiers became so violent against the King, that at 
last, alarmed, as he said, for his life, he made his 
escape from Hampton Court, where he had been 
lodged, and threw himself into the power of Colonel 
Hammond, governor of the Isle of Wight, by whom 
he was placed in Carisbrooke Castle, from which he 
afterwards vainly sought to make his escape. Thi'j 
was after he had entered into a secret treaty with the 
Scots, by which he bound himself to maintain the 
Presbyterian system in England for three years, and 
they undertook to restore him to his throne. On 
all sides, in anticipation of the coming of the Scots 
Royalist risings took place, first in Wales and the 
West, then in Kent and in the North; while the 
Scottish army, made up of Royalists and moderate 
Presbyterians, and led by the Duke of Hamilton, 
invaded England. But all these attempts were put 
down by the energy of Fairfax and Cromwell, the 
iattei of whom routed the Scots at Preston and 
Warrington in Lancashire (Aug. 17 and 19, 1648) 
The southern insurgents, who had thrown themselves 
into Colchester^ after a desperate defence, surrendered 
to Fairfax ; and thus ended the brief struggle known 
as the Second Civil War. 



«cxiii. TRIAL OF CHARLES. 217 

8. " Pride's Purge." — Frightened at the temper 
of the army, the ParHament re-opened negotiations 
with the King at Newport. But the army had other 
views. Already before going forth to the Second 
Civil War, the army leaders, indignant at the King's 
conduct, had met, after their wont, for prayer and 
consultation, and had resolved that it was their duty, 
if ever they came back in peace, " to call Charles 
Stuart, that man of blood, to an account for that 
blood he had shed." Charles was now removed by 
soldiers to Hurst Castle, a lonely stronghold on the 
shore of the Solent, and as the Parliament decided to 
come to a reconciliation with him, it was " purged,*' 
— that is, the entrance to the House was barred by 
Colonel Pride with a regiment of foot, and more than a 
hundred members displeasing to the army party were 
shut out. Thus " purged," the Commons, or rather 
the remains of them, voted that it was treason in the 
King of England to levy war against the Parliament, 
and followed this up with an ordinance appointing a 
High Court of Justice to try Charles on that charge. 
The Lords refusing to concur, the Commons voted 
that the supreme authority resided in themselves, and 
the so-called High Court of Justice was finally consti- 
tuted by the authority of the so-called Commons alone. 
The most notable of its members were Cromwell, 
his son-in-law Hejiry IreioUf and the president of 
the conn John Bradshaw. 

9. Trial and Beheading of Charles. — On the 
20th January, 1649, ^^ King was brought from St. 
James's Palace before the High Court in Westminster 
Hall. Of a hundred and thirty-five members of the 
Court, less than seventy, Cromwell being among them, 
were present. When the name of Fairfax, as one of 
the members, was called, his wife's voice was heard in 
answer, " He is not here, and will never be ; you do 
him wrong to name him." Charles, bearing himself 
with kingly firmness and dignity, refused to acknow- 



£18 CHARLES L rcHA£> 

ledge the jurisdiction of the tribund. Marks of public 
sympathy for him were not wanting, and the soldiers^ 
shouts of " Justice ! " " Execution ! " were mingled 
with counter-cries of " God save the King 1 " On 
the last day, Jan. 27, of the trial, Charles requested 
a conference with the I^ords and Commons, but was 
refused, and sentence of death was pronounced upon 
** Charles Stuart, King of England," as " a tyrant, 
traitor, murderer, and public enemy to the good 
people of the nation." The names of fifty-nine mem- 
bers of the Court were subscribed to the warrant oi 
execution. Charles calmly resigned himself to his 
fate, taking a tender farewell of his two youngest 
children, the Princess Elizabeth, aged thirteen, and 
Henry, Duke of Gloucester, who was but eight. The 
rest of his time was spent at his devotions, in the com- 
pany of William Juxon, Bishop of London, by whom 
he was attended on the scafifold in front of Whitehall, 
where he was beheaded, January 30. A few faithful 
adherents followed him to his grave in St. George's 
Chapel, Windsor. About a week after his death, 
the Commons voted that the House of Lords and the 
office of King were useless and dangerous, and ought 
to be abolished. By taking the life of Charles his 
enemies in reality exalted his fame. The execution 
of a King was a thing hitherto unheard of, and 
Royalist and Presbyterian alike stood aghast The 
mass of his subjects, forgetting his misgovernment 
and faithlessness, only remembered that he had been 
condemned by an illegal and arbitrary tribunal, and 
that the ancient institutions of the nation had fallen 
with him. The Episcopalians, mindful how he had 
striven to maintain the Church in its power and dig- 
nity, styled him Martyr^ and well-nigh worshipped his 
memory. 

10. Children of Charles. — Of the children of 
Charles, his eldest sons, Charles ^ Prince of WaUs^ bom 
^630, dJid James. Duke of York^ bom 1633, each in turn 



XXXIV.] THE COMMONWEALTH. 2ig 

became King. Mary married William^ Prince oj 
Orange Nassau^ who held the office of Stadholder or 
chief magistrate of Holland^ and their son was after- 
wards King William III. of England. Elizabeth, and 
Henry, Duke of Gloucester, who were in the power of the 
Parliament, were treated after their father's death like 
the children of a private gentleman. Elizabeth died 
in 1650 in Carisbrooke Castle, where she had been 
placed together with her brother Henry, who, two 
years later, was allowed to join his family abroad. 
He died in 1660, soon after his brother Charles bad 
been restored to the throne. Henrietta Maria, bom 
1644, married Philips Duke of Orleans^ brother of 
King Louis XIV. of France. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

THE COMMONWEALTH. 

The Commonwealth (i) — the Irish War (2) — war 
with Scotland; battles of Dunbar and Worcester; 
escape of Charles (3) — the Dutch War (4) — the Long 
Parliatnent turned out by Cromwell (5) — the Little 
Parliament (6) — the Protectorate ; Oliver Cromwell , 
offer of the Crown; '''^ Oliver's Lords'"^ ij)— foreign 
affairs (8) — death of Cromwell (9) — religious affairs. 
Fifth Monarchy men; Quakers (10) — Richard 
Cromwell (11) — General Monk: final dissolution oj 
the Long Par liafnent (12) — Restoration of the King; 
character of the Puritans (13). 

I. The Commonwealth, 1649-1660. — The 
House of Commons, such as it was, for it now seldom 
exceeded some fifty m.embers, had become the sole 
mling power, and by it a Council of State, of which 
Bradshaw was the first president, was appointed to 
carry on the government The Duke of Hamilton 



230 TUL COMMONWEALTH. [chap. 

and two other Royalist noblemen taken in the Second 
Civil War were beheaded ; and England was declared 
a Commonwealth and Free State, to be governed with 
out any King or House of Lords. Some voices how 
ever were raised in complaint that the new government 
was no better than the old ; and in the army these 
malcontents — called ^^ Leveller s,' because they held; 
or were accused of holding, that all degrees of men 
should be levelled, or placed on an equality as to rank 
and property — broke out into a mutiny, which wps 
swiftly crushed by Cromwell. 

2. Ireland. — Young Charles, who was regarded as 
King by every Royalist, was an exile abroad. His chief 
hopes lay in Ireland, v^here James Butler, Marquess of 
Ormonde, the Royalist Lord-Lieutenant, gathered 
round him every one, whether Roman Catholic, Episco- 
palian, or Presbyterian, who would fight for the King. 
Against these, the Council of State sent out, as their 
Lord-Lieutenant, Cromwell, who, by dint of unsparing 
severity towards all who resisted, and by drawing over 
the Protestants to the Parliament side, broke the 
strength of the Royalist cause. After nine months he 
was called away to Scotland, leaving Ireton to carry on 
his work in Ireland. Under the rule of the Common- 
wealth, permission was given to the Roman Catholic 
leaders and their followers to enter the sen'ice of 
foreign states ; many of the Irish were shipped to the 
West Indies ; large confiscations of land were made, 
certain counties of Munster, Leinster, and Ul^^ter being 
portioned out among English " adventurers " (men who, 
upon the outbreak of the rebellion, had advanced 
money for quelling it, in consideration of forfeited 
lands to be allotted to them) and Parliamentary 
soldiers ; while the old proprietors were "transplanted " 
to lands assigned to them in the wilds of Connaught 
and Clare. 

3. War with Scotland. — Scotlard, where 
Charles had arrived, and was accepted as King, war 



XXXIV. J WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 221 

next invaded by Cromwell, who, unable to bring the 
Scots to a battle, and with his troops distressed by 
sickness and scarcity of food, had eventually to fall 
back upon Dunbar. Before him was the Scots army 
under David Lesley, strongly posted on Doon Hill, 
behind him the sea, and on his left the enemy had 
seized the pass towards England. But the Scots 
beginning to descend the hill, Cromwell suddenly 
attacked them in flank, about daybreak on the 3rd 
September, 1650. As the sun rose over the sea, the 
English general exclaimed " Now let God arise, and 
His enemies shall be scattered ; " and scattered the 
Scots were, in utter rout. In the course of the next 
year, whilst Cromwell was still engaged in Scotland, 
Charles and his army suddenly crossed the Border, 
and though their hopes of a rising in their favour 
were disappointed, they pushed as far as Worcester, 
where Cromwell overtook and defeated them on 
the anniversary of Dunbar. Cromwell wrote of this 
victory as " a crowning mercy ; " and in fact it was 
the last battle he had to fight. The Parliament had 
declared the adherents of Charles traitors and rebels, 
and as such the Earl of Derby and two other prisoners 
suffered death. A reward of a thousand pounds was 
offered for the apprehension of Charles, who, having 
made his escape from Worcester, went through a 
succession of hazardous adventures, during which he 
entrusted himself to more than forty persons, none 
of whom failed in fidelity or caution. A Roman 
Catholic family of the name of Penderell, country folk 
^ving at or about Boscobel in Shropshire, were among 
the chief agents in his concealment. At one time, 
with hair cut short, and dressed as a peasant, he lay 
hidden in Boscobel wood; at another, shrouded in the 
thick leaves of a great oak-tree, he caught glimpses o\ 
the Parliament soldiers hunting up and down in search 
of fugitives. Having walked till he was footsore, he 
was glad, when he left Boscobel House for Moseley, 



222 THE COMMONWEALTH. (chap. 

the abode of a Roman Catholic gentleman, to ride 
the horse of the miller, Humfrey Penderell, who, 
to Charles's complaint of its jolting pace, replied 
that he must remember it was carrying the weight of 
three kingdoms. Moseley he left in the disguise of 
servant to a gentlewoman, Jane Lane, who rode behind 
him on a pillion, as the manner then was for women 
to travel. Finally he and his friend Lord Wilmol 
sailed in a collier vessel from Brighton, then a small 
fishing village. He was recognised by the master 
who however said he would venture life and all foi 
him ; and thus, after so many perils, Charles landed 
safely in Normandy. Such were the stories which in 
after days he loved to tell, and which loyal Cavaliers 
treasured up and repeated. The war in Scotland 
was carried on by one of Cromwell's officers. General 
George Monk^ who brought the country under the 
authority of the English Parliament. 

4. The Dutch War. — In 1652 a war broke out 
with the Dutch — as the people of the Seven United 
Provinces of the Netherlands were commonly called 
— between whom and the English there was much ill- 
will, arising partly out of commercial jealousy. This 
war is memorable as a trial of strength between 
Admiral Robert Blake and the great Dutch seamen 
Martin Tramp and Michael de Ruyter. Once, after 
worsting Blake in the Downs, Tromp, it is said, sailed 
through the Channel with a broom at his mast-head. 
to signify that he had swept those seas of the English 
— an insult which was afterwards avenged in three 
stubborn contests. Blake, owing to ill-health, was not 
in the last of these battles, fought in July, 1653, in 
which Tromp fell. One of the commanders of the 
English fleet was General Monk ; for in those days 
the naval and militarv services were not kept separate 
In the next year peace was made with the Dutch. 

5. Turning out of the Long Parliament. — 
While this war was going on, the goveminent was again 



joamr.] THE LITTLE PARLIAMENT. 22.:? 

changed ; for the rivalry between the Parliament — or 
" the Rump" as the remnant of the House of Commons 
was contemptuously called — and the army had ended 
in the triumph of the latter. The Parliament had 
already been prevailed upon to fix a day — too distant a 
day, as the army leaders thought — for its own dissolu- 
tion \ but there was the further question as to how its 
successor should be chosen. A bill for these purposes 
was before the House ; but its provisions were not ac- 
ceptable to the army leaders. On the 20th April, 1653, 
the Lord General Cromwell, having learned that the 
** Rump " was hurriedly passing the bill to which he 
objected, entered the House, and, after some praise of 
the Parliament's care for the public good, began to 
tax it with " injustice, delays of justice, self-interest." 
A member rose to remonstrate. " Come, come," cried 
Cromwell, " I will put an end to your prating." And 
calling in some twenty or thirty musketeers, he ordered 
the members out, upbraiding them as they went. 
Pointing to the mace, the symbol of authority, he 
bade a soldier " take away that bauble." The House 
was cleared, and the doors were locked. 

6. The Little Parliamer t. — Cromwell had thus 
made himself master of England, and the only check 
upon him was the army. This army, combining 
perfect discipline with burning religious zeal, was 
unlike any ordinary military force. Officers and 
soldiers prayed and preached together : the troops 
lived, said a foreigner, ''as if they were brother- 
hoods of monks." Proud as these men were of their 
general, in whom they saw the union of soldier- 
ship and sanctity carried to perfection, they would 
ill have borne that he should take the name, hate- 
ful to most of them, of King. Nor, although their 
victories seemed to them tokens that they were called 
to provide for the government of the land and the 
welfare of the godly, did they wish to rule England 
by the power of the sword. A temporary Council 



224 THE COMMONWEALTH. (chap 

of State was appointed, and Cromwell, acting with 
the advice of a Council of his officers, summoned 
about 140 persons by name to serve as members of 
an assembly which is known as " the Little Pccrlia- 
ment^' or, as the Cavaliers nicknamed it, " Praise- 
God Barebone's Parliament," after the quaint name oi 
one of its members. This assembly set to making 
legal and ecclesiastical reforms at such a rate that 
people got frightened ; and in about five months' time 
the more moderate members thought it best to sur- 
render their powers to Cromwell, who was thereupon 
appointed by his officers Lo7'd Protector of the Common- 
wealth of Eftglandy Scotland, and Ireland (December 
16, 1653). There was to be an elected Parliament, 
consisting of one House only ; all who had aided 
or abetted war against Parliament were disqualified 
temporarily from electing or being elected. 

7. The Protectorate. Oliver Cromwell, 
1653- 1 658. — With few friends except among the 
soldiers, Oliver — for, king-like, he styled himself by 
his Christian name — had for enemies, not only the 
Ro)^alists, but also the Republicans, who looked upon 
him as the destroyer of the Commonwealth. In the 
beginning of 1655, a Republican plot and a Royalist 
insurrection were alike crushed, the Republicans being 
leniently treated, but not so the Cavaliers, some of 
whom were put to death, and others sold for slaves in 
the West Indies. Many other schemes were formed 
for the Protector's overthrow, and even for his assas- 
sination ; but he kept himself well informed of all that 
was going on, and his rule was too strong and vigilant 
to be shaken off. For about a year after the revolt 
of 1655, the country was ruled by Major-Generals, 
wielding well-nigh absolute power ; and to defray the 
expenses of this military government a tenth of income 
was arbitrarily wrung from the luckless Royalists. The 
Protector's first Parliament, which met in 1654, ques- 
tioned his authority, and was dissolved by him iu 



txxTV.] OLIVER CROMWELL. 225 

anger. The next Parliament, which met in 1656, pro 
posed that he should take the title of King; but a 
number of the officers of the army, and of those who 
favoured a Republic, opposed so strongly that he 
though* it better to refuse. Almost all the old forms 
of the constitution were however restored under new 
names. The Protector was enthroned with all but 
kingly pomp in Westminster Hall, and there were 
again to be two Houses of Parliament The " Other 
House," as the Commons called it, was to be a House 
of Lords, but it proved a failure. A few of the old 
nobles were summoned, but almost all kept aloof; 
the Protector's two sons, members of his Council, 
military officers, lawyers, and others, mostly taken 
from the House of Commons, made up the rest. 
The Commons raised such difficulties about giving 
them the title of Lords, that Cromwell dissolved the 
Parliament, February 4, 1658. As Scotland, where 
the English mle was maintained by Monk and his 
army, and Ireland were now united with the English 
Commonwealth, representatives for those countries sat 
in the Parliaments of the Protectorate. 

8. Foreign Affairs. — Whatever might be thought 
of the Protector's home rule, the success of his foreign 
policy dazzled even his opponents. Under him Eng- 
land became one of the most formidable powers in 
Europe ; and France, Spain, and the United Pro- 
vinces alike courted his friendship. Blake enforced 
from the Grand Duke of Tuscany reparation for damage 
to English commerce, and burned the Moorish pirate- 
vessels in the Bay of Tunis. An attack in 1655 
upon the West Indian possessions of Spain proved 
an exception to the general success of Cromwell's 
schemes, as the expedition failed of its main object, 
San Domingo, and though it took the island o{ Jamaica^ 
this was at first regarded as a worthless acquisition. 
But at sea the English held their own ; and in 1656 
the Londoner."^ were gladdened by the sight of a traio 



226 THE COMMONWEALTH. [chap 

of thirty-eight waggons conveying to the Tower the 
silver taken from a Spanish fleet. In the next yeai 
the daring Blake fought his last fight, attacking 
and burning, under a tremendous fire from the 
batteries on shore, the Spanish treasure-ships in 
the harbour of Santa Cruz, in Teneriffe. Blake did 
not live to receive the praise of his countrymen j 
he died within sight of Plymouth, August 17, 1657. 
Cromwell, taking Queen Elizabeth as his model, 
aspired to be the protector of the Reformed faith 
throughout Europe; and by means of his influence with 
the French government he was able to check the Duke 
of Savoy's persecution of the Vaudois, the Protestants 
of Piedmont. In the last year of his rule he gave the 
country a compensation for the still regretted Calais. 
An English force was sent to join the French in 
war against the Spaniards, and shared in tlie Battle of 
the Dunes in 1658, the result of which was the sur- 
render of the town of Dunkirk^ which England 
retained as the price of its assistance. 

9. Death of the Protector. - Oliver, who was in 
ill-health, did not long survive the death of his favourite 
daughter, Elizabeth Claypole. He died at the age of 
fifty-nine, on his " Fortunate Day," the anniversary of 
Dunbar and Worcester, Sept. 3, 1658. He left two 
sons, Richard and Henry, the elder of whom was 
proclaimed Protector, his father, on liis deathbed, 
having been understood to name him for his successor. 
The character of Oliver Cromwell is still a subject of 
dispute. Royalists, Presbyterians, and RepubHcans 
joined in denouncing him as a hypocrite who from first 
to last had on*ly aimed at power for himself; yet there 
are grounds for considering him a sincere enthusiast. 
His genius cannot be doubted. For the first forty 
years of his life he never saw war, yet he proved a 
great general ; bred in a private station, he became a 
great prince, even his enemies adrait^ting that he bore 
himself with dignity. Hi? power and wisdom extorted 



xxxiv.] RICHARD CROMWELL. 227 

an unwilling admiration, and in after days, when a 
foreign fleet insulted our shores, men looked back with 
something of regret to the mighty Oliver, who " made 
dll the neighbour princes fear him." 

10. Religious Affairs. — Cromwell's general 
oolicy was one of toleration in religious matters, 
church hvings were held both by Presbyterian and 
independent ministers, subject to the approval of a 
Board appointed by the Protector. Freedom was 
illowed to all the sects which had sprung out ol 
Puritanism, so long as they did not utter opinions 
dangerous to his government ; for the fiercest Repub 
(icans were to be found among some of the " sectaries " 
— Anabaptists, Levellers, " Fifth-Monarchy men." 
The last-named believed themselves called to prepare 
the way for the reign on earth of Christ's saints. 
Having read of the " Four great Monarchies," 
Assyrian, Persian, Greek, and Roman,- they reckoned 
their expected kingdom as the " Fifth Monarchy" 
Not long before the Protectorate, there arose the 
sect of the Quakers^ as the world in general called 
them, or Friends, as they called themselves, founded 
by George Fox, son of a weaver. They were at 
first looked on with great dislike, and were much 
harassed, though the Protector himself treated 
Fox kindly. A few Jews were allowed to settle 
in the country, for the first time since their expul- 
sion by Edward I. Ohver's toleration however did 
not extend to the Roman Catholics, and hardly to 
the Episcopahans, who were, as a matter of course, 
Royalists. After the revolt of 1655, he forbade the 
use of the Common Pray er-lD 00k, and the Episcopalian 
clergy were debarred from preaching or teaching. 
But these orders were not strictly carried out, and 
zealous congregations of the ** Silenced Church " still 
met in private. 

ri. The Protectorate. Richard Cromwell, 
1658-1659. — Great was the vexation of the Royalists on 



228 THE COMMONWEALTH. tcHAP 

finding that Richard Cromwell took his place as quietl> 
as uny rightful King. Gentle, docile, and of ordinar) 
abilities, the young man had made no enemies ; but 
the army scorned the rule of one who had never 
distinguished himself in war. After eight months, the 
malcontent officers recalled the " Rump " to power, 
and Richard, without a struggle, gave up his office, 
and retired into private life, whither he was followed 
by his brother Henry, who, during the Protectorate, 
had governed Ireland with ability. 

12. General Monk. — The Rump was no sooner 
restored than its quarrel with the army began again ; 
and in a few months the doors of the House were 
closed by General John Lambert, who thought him- 
self a second Oliver Cromwell. But Monk, the 
commander of the English army in Scotland, refus- 
ing to acknowledge the government set up by the 
officers in London, marched with his forces towards 
England, and fixed his head-quarters at Coldstream 
on the Tweed. Hence his men were called " Cold- 
streamers," a name of which the memory is still 
preserved in that of the Coldstream Guards. Every- 
where the dislike of military government was 
breaking out ; people refused to pay taxes ; the 
London apprentices were clamouring for a freely 
elected Parliament ; the fleet " advanced up the 
Thames, and declared ^self against the rule of the 
army. The soldiers themselves, dissatisfied with their 
officers, restored the Rump, the only body in the 
country which had any show of legal authority. Fair- 
fax, co-operating with Monk, mustered his friends 
and occupied York \ while Lambert, who had marched 
to the North to stop Monk, was forsaken by his 
forces. Monk, the ruler of the hour, entered London, 
Feb. 3, i66o. Cold and silent, he for some days let not 
a word fall that could betray his real intentions, but at 
last he declared for a free Parliament — an announce- 
ment which was received with every mark of joy, 



xxxiv.j THE RESTORATION. 229 

amidst the ringing of bells and the blaze of bonfires 
The Presbyterian members who had been " purged " 
out by Pride, again took their seats, and Parliament, 
after issuing writs for a general election, decreed its 
own dissolution, March 16. Thus ended that famous 
" Long Parhament " which, twice expelled and twice 
restored, had existed for twenty years. 

13. The Restoration. — The new Parliament, or 
rather Convention, for, not having been summoned by 
the King, it was not in law a Parliament, met April 
25, the Peers now returning to their House. Monk 
meanwhile had been in secret communication with the 
exiled Charles, who issued to his " loving subjects " 
a Declaration, dated from Breda, wherein he promised 
pardon for past oftences to all, " excepting only such 
persons as shall hereafter be excepted by Parliament," 
and also "a liberty to tender consciences." On the 8th 
May, seven days after this Declaration was received, 
Charles II. was proclaimed King, and the fleet having 
been sent to convoy him from Holland to Dover, he 
made his entry into London, May 29, in the midst of 
almost universal rejoicing ; the roads were strewed with 
flowers, the streets hung with tapestry, the fountains 
ran with wine. On his way he passed the Common- 
wealth army, drawn up on Black heath to give a 
reluctant welcome to the King whom they abhorred. 
Thus fell the Puritans, a class who rendered great 
political service to their country, and who are to be 
respected for their conscientious devotion to what 
seemed to them to be right. But they committed the 
error of trying to make all men religious after theii 
own pattern. The Long Parliament put down public 
amusements, forbade the keeping of Christmas and 
other ancient festivals, and assigned punishments of 
unprecedented severity to breaches of private morality. 
Religion, or the appearance of it, was made a neces- 
sary qualification for office ; and the result was that 
the name of Puritan became syconyraous with that 



230 CHARLES IL [chap 

of hypocrite, and the unnatural restraint of the Com- 
monwealth was succeeded at the Restoration by aD 
outbreak of profligacy. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

CHARLES IL 

Charles II. (i) — the Convention Parliament {2) — the Non- 
conformists (3) — Ireland (4) — the King's marriage; 
Tangier; Bombay; sale of Dunkirk {s}—the Plague 
Year {6)— the Great Fire {j)—the Dutch War (8)— 
fall of Clarendon; the Triple Alliance; Treaty oj 
Dover; the Cabal {<^)— the Popish Plot {10)— the Habeas 
Corpus Act (11) — Whig and Tory ; the Dukes of York 
and of Monmouth ; the Whig Plots; death of Charles 

(12). 

1. House of Stuart. Charles II., 1660- 1685.— 

Charles IL began his reign with everything in his favour. 
No measure was ever more acceptable to the nation than 
was the Restoration ; no conditions were made with 
him, no new restrictions laid upon him; the year of 
his return was styled, not i\\t first, but the twelfth^ of his 
reign, which was thus reckoned to have begun from 
the time of his father's death. Unfortunately Charles 
had few qualities which merited the love bestowed 
upon him. He had talents, easy good-temper, and the 
manners of an accomplished gentleman, but neither 
heart nor principles. So far as he had any religion, he 
was secretly a Roman Catholic ; as a ruler, his incli- 
nation was towards a despotic monarchy ; but he was 
not the man to risk his crown in grasping at more 
power — as he himself said, he was " resolved to go 
abroad no more ; " — and his main object in life was 
to be amused and to avoid trouble. 

2. The Convention Parliament. — The Con- 
vetition Parliament — for by its first statute it declared 



ixxv.] THE NONCONFORMISTS. ±p 

itself to be a Parliament — passed an Ac/ of Indemnity 
by which the promised general pardon was granted ; 
those who had been actually concerned in the death of 
Charles 1. were excepted from its benefits. Of these 
*' regicides'' thirteen suffered death, and others were left 
in prison for life. The bodies of Cromwell, Ireton, 
and Bradshaw were, on the next anniversary of the late 
King's death, dragged out of their tombs at West- 
minster, and hanged on the gallows at Tyburn. The 
Act of Indemnity was far from pleasing the distressed 
Cavaliers, who found that it barred them from legal 
remedy for their losses during the late troubles, and 
their feelings were consequently very bitter. A statute 
was passed abolishing the now useless and oppressive 
tenures by knight-service, with all their attendant 
grievances. By the same Act the King also gave up 
the prerogative of purveyance and pre-emption. In 
compensation, he received an excise upon beer and 
other liquors, a tax first introduced by the Long 
Parliament. The army was disbanded as soon as 
possible. If Parhament had had its wish, there would 
have been no military force except the militia ; but a 
wild rising of a handful of Fifth-Monarchy men in 
London gave Charles an excuse for keeping up a body 
of guards, retaining among them Monk's " Cold- 
streamers " and another old regiment. He contrived 
to spare enough from his revenue to maintain and 
gradually to increase these forces, and thus, though 
without the sanction of law, he became master of a 
small standing army. 

3. The Nonconformists or Dissenters. — In 
the new Parliament, which met in May, 1661, the 
Cavalier party had completely the upper hand. The 
Corporation Act was passed, by which every officer of 
a corporation was required to communicate according 
to the rites of the Church of England, and to swear to 
his belief that taking arms against the King was in all 
cases unlawful. The Bishops, who had already returned 



232 CHARLES II. [chap 

to their sees, were now restored to their seats in the 
House of Lords ; and the Liturgy was revived with 
some alterations. Charles had held out hopes ol 
some changes in the episcopal system which would 
satisfy the moderate Presbyterians ; but the Par- 
liament would make r.o concessions. A stringent 
Act of U7iiformit}\ requiring all persons holding 
ecclesiastical preferment to declare their assent to 
everything contained in the Book of Common Prayer, 
drove about two thousand ministers from their bene- 
fices, as the Royahst incumbents had been turned out 
before them. This was followed at intervals by harsh 
Acts against the Nonconformists and their religious 
meetings. It was about this time that the names ol 
Puritan and Nonconformist began to be replaced by 
that of Dissenter, the change of name marking a 
change of feeling. The Nonconformist under Charles 
L had striven to fashion the Church according to his 
own ideas ; under Charles IL he made up his mind 
to stand outside, only asking for liberty to " dissent" 
from the Church. Charles, for the sake of the Roman 
Catholics, was not inchned to be hard upon dissent ; 
but his motive was suspected. In 1672 he put out a 
Declaration of Liditlgence, hy which. Protestant Dissen- 
ters were to be allowed to worship in places licensed 
for the purpose, and Roman CathoUcs in private 
houses. But Parliament denying his power thus to 
dispense with penal statutes " in matters ecclesi- 
astical," he withdrew his Declaration. So far from 
being able to carry out his wishes, he had to give his 
assent to the Test Act (1673), which, though it also 
shut oui the Protestant Nonconformists from office, 
was aimed especially at the Roman Catholics. Undei 
this Act all persons holding civil or military office were 
required to take the oaths of supremacy and allegiance, 
to subscribe a declaration against transuhstaniiation 
(the distinguishing doctrine of the Church of Rome 
upon the Eucharist), and to communicate according to 



XXXV. J THE PLAGUE YEAR. 2^3 

the Anglican rites. Rather than comply with these 
requirements, the King's brother James, Duke of York, 
resigned his place of Lord High Admiral — a step by 
which he practically avowed himself to be, as had long 
been suspected, a Roman Catholic. 

4. Ireland. — In the other parts of the British 
Isles the royal authority was re-established without 
difficulty. Scotland became again a separate kingdom ; 
in Ireland episcopacy was restored, and a Parliament 
proceeded to settle the claims of the dispossessed 
Royalists and Roman Catholics on the one side, and 
the adventurers and soldiers, Cromwell's colonists, on 
the other. After long wrangling, the *'Cromwellians," 
as they were called, gave up a third of their gains ; 
but numbers of Irish claimants who protested, truly 
or untruly, that they had had no share in the rebellion 
of 1 64 1 obtained neither restitution nor compensa- 
tion, and raised bitter complaints. 

5. Tangier, Bombay, and Dunkirk. — In 1662 
Charles married the Infanta of Poi'tugal, Kathai-ine of 
Bragafizay receiving as part of her dowry the fortress 
of Tangier in Africa and the island of Bombay in India. 
Tangier was abandoned before the end of the reign as 
worthless ; Bombay after a short time was made over 
to the East India Company. In the same year, 1662, 
Dunkirk was sold to Louis XIV., King of France, 
a transaction which roused general indignation, the 
more so, as it was believed that the motive was the 
gaining funds to support a profligate court. 

6. The Plague Year. — In 1665, during an 
unusually hot and dry summer, the Plague broke out in 
London with a fury such as had not been known for 
three centuries. The Court and most of the rich fled 
from the stricken city ; the stout-hearted Monk, whose 
services in the Restoration had gained him the title ot 
Duke of Albemarle, remained at Whitehall as the chief 
representative of government, although, as he said, he 
should have thought himself much safer in action 



234 CHARLES II. [chap 

against the Dutch. The shops were shut up, the grass 
grew iu the streets ; rows of houses stood empty, oi 
marked on their doors with a red cross and the 
words " Lord have mercy on us," — the sign that the 
pestilence was within. By winter-time the worst was 
over ; but in these six months it is said that more than 
100,000 people perished. 

7. The Great Fire of London. — Hardly had 
London recovered from the scourge of plague when 
another evil befell it. On the 2nd September, 1666 
— the Annus MirabiliSy or " Year of Wonders" as the 
poet Dryden named it- — an accidental fire broke out in 
Pudding Lane, near Fish Street. The neighbouring 
houses, being of wood, quickly caught the flames, 
which, driven by an east wind, soon wrapped London 
in a blaze which made the night as light as day for ten 
miles round. At this fearful time, Charles, usually so 
careless and indifferent, displayed an unexpected 
energy, superintending, together with the Duke of 
York, the pulling down of houses, for the purpose 
of checking the flames. At last, wide gaps having 
been made in the streets by blowing up the build 
ings with gunpowder, and the wind abating, the fire 
was stayed, though not until after it had burned 
for three days, and laid London in ashes from the 
Tower to the Temple and Smithfield. The column 
known as ^^ the Mo?iument'* marks the spot near which 
the fire began. Old St. Paul's being among the build- 
ings which perished, it was replaced by the present 
church, the work of the great architect Sir Christopher 
Wren. 

8. The Dutch W^ar. — These calamitous years 
were further marked by a naval war, arising mainly 
out of commercial rivalry, with the United Provinces, 
or, as they were usually called, from the name of the 
leading province among them, Holland. One battle 
in the Downs, fought in June, 1666, was contested for 
four days ; the Dutch were commanded by De Ruyter, 



XXXV.] THE DUTCH WAR. 235 

the English by Albemarle and Prince Rupert. Louis 
XIV. gave some help to the Dutch ; but after a 
while he entered into secret negotiations with 
Charles, and did no more for his allies. The English 
had some successes ; but the supplies voted for the war 
being squandered by the Court or embezzled by the 
officials, the vessels were laid up unrepaired, and the 
sailors left unpaid till they mutinied. In 1667 a 
Dutch fleet sailed up the Medway, burned the English 
vessels at Chatham, and blockaded the river Thames. 
** This comes of your not paying our husbands," cried 
the sailors' wives in the streets of Wapping ; and 
indeed not the least part of the disgrace was that 
English sailors were serving on board the Dutch ships, 
and were heard calling out " We did heretofore fight for 
tickets ; now we fight for dollars ! " John Evelyn, a 
gentleman of the time, whose diary has come down to 
us, has recorded how he looked upon the Dutch fleet 
lying within the mouth of the Thames, — "a dreadful 
spectacle as ever Englishmen saw, and a dishonour 
never to be wiped off" ! " Peace was made soon after- 
wards. 

9. Treaty of Dover. — The anger of the nation 
was somewhat appeased by the dismissal of the Lord 
Chancellor, Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, hitherto 
the King's chief adviser, who was disliked, though 
for different reasons, both by courtiers and people. 
Clarendon was an old-fashioned statesman, who wished 
to see the government conducted as in the days of 
Elizabeth, and was indignant when the Commons pre- 
sumed to inquire how the money they had voted foi 
the war had been spent ; but at the same time he 
frowned upon the vices and follies of the King and 
the Court. Being impeached by the Commons, 
Clarendon fled the country, and died in exile. The 
King's advisers now took the popular step of forming 
the Triple Ailiance between England, Holland, and 
Sweden, in order to check Louis XIV. in his careei 



B36 CHARLES IL [chap 

of conquest. But Charles had other schemes at heart, 
and ere long he sold himself to France by the secret 
Treaty of Dover ^ May 22, 1670. Under this he en 
gaged to declare himself, as soon as might be prudent, 
a Roman Catholic, to join in a war against Holland, 
and otherwise to serve the French designs ; while 
Louis engaged to pay him a large subsidy, a yearly 
pension during the war, and to aid him with an army 
if any insurrection should break out in England. The 
then leading ministers of the Crown are known as 
the"C«^^/" — a term used in much the same sense 
as Cabinet, but applied more particularly to them in 
consequence of its comprising the initials of their 
names or titles, Clifford^ Lord Arlington, the. Duke ol 
Buckingham, Lord Ashley (afterwards Earl of Shaftes- 
bury) iZMdt\\tT)vikQo(Laudej'dale. Of these, only Clifford 
and Arlington, whose leanings were towards the Church 
of Rome, were entrusted with the secret of the King's 
engagement to declare himself a Roman Catholic. For 
some time before this reign that which we call the 
cabinet — consisting of a small number of persons selected 
by the sovereign, whose existence as a body is stiTi 
unrecognized by law — had begun to draw to itself the 
functions originally belonging to the whole Council. 
The war with Holland was declared in 1672, the 
necessary funds being raised by "shutting the 
Exchequer," that is, by suspending the payments due 
to the goldsmiths and bankers who had advanced 
money to the government. Peace was made in 
two years, by which time the "Cabal" had broken 
up. Clifford, who had recently become a Roman 
Catholic, had preferred resigning his office of Lord 
Treasurer to taking the test imposed by the Act of 
1673. Shaftesbury, having probably learned the 
King's secret engagement as to his religion, 
had exerted all his influence to put an end to the 
French alliance and the Dutch war, and had in con- 
sequence beer dismissed from his office of Lord 



xxxv.J THE POPISH PLOT. 237 

Chancellor. He now became the leader of the 
»* Country Party ^^ as those opposed to the Court were 
called. 

10. The Popish Plot. — In 1678, the nation, 
already suspicious of the real plot of Charles and Louis 
against its religion and liberty, was driven wild by the 
alleged discovery of a " Popish Plot " for the assassi- 
nation of the King and the massacre of all Protestants. 
Titus Oates, a man of infamous character, was the chief 
witness to it ; and by him and by others who made a 
profit of perjury the lives of many innocent Roman 
Catholics were sworn away. Under the influence of 
the popular feeling, an Act was passed which shut 
out Roman CathoHcs (the Duke of York excepted) 
from either House of Parliament and from the royal 
presence. From the House of Commons indeed they 
had long been excluded by the oath of supremacy 
exacted from the members : but it was not until the 
passing of the Act of 1678 that the Roman Catholic 
peers ceased to take iheir seats. Both Lords and 
Commons were now required, not only to take the. 
oaths of supremacy and allegiance, but also to sub- 
scribe a declaration against transubstantiatiori and the 
worship of the Church of Rome. 

11. Habeas Corpus Act. — The Parliament, which 
had been in existence ever since 1661, was at last 
dissolved in 1679; and to its shortlived successor, 
which met and was dissolved within the year, belongs 
the honour of having passed the famous Habeas 
Corpus Act. The Great Charter had established the 
immunity of every freeman from arbitrary imprison- 
ment ; but in practice various ways were found of 
violating this right. The object of this new Act was 
effectually to provide that no man should be long 
detained in prison on a criminal charge without either 
the legality of his imprisonment being proved in open 
court, or his being brought to trial. The name comes 
from thai of the writ of Habeas Corpus, to which 



238 CHARLES IL [chap 

recourse could always be had on behalf of persona 
illegally imprisoned. The writ was addressed to the 
person by whom any one was detained, commanding 
him to produce his prisoner in court and show tht 
cause of the imprisonment. The judges often found 
pretexts for refusing to award the writ, and the gaolers 
for delaying to obey it. In times of pubHc danger, 
the operation of this statute is sometimes suspended 
by Acts giving the government power for a limited 
period to imprison suspected persons without bringing 
them to trial. 

12. \A^hig and Tory. — About this time the party 
names of lV/i(^ and Tory came into use. IV/iig was a 
nickname given to the insurgent Covenanters of Scot- 
land, and from them it was transferred to those of the 
Country Party who were bent on shutting out the 
Duke of York from the throne on account of his 
religion. Those wlio were against this scheme were 
called Tories^ a name originally given to the Roman 
Catholic outlaws who haunted the bogs of Ireland. The 
.King had no legitimate children ; but the eldest of his 
illegitimate sons, James, Duke of Monmouth, was put 
forward by Shaftesbury and other Whigs as a claimant. 
Monmouth, " the Protestant Duke," was the darling 
of the common people, who believed him to be of 
lawful birth, and who were fascinated by his grace and 
winning manners. In three Parliaments the Whigs 
pursued their scheme of an " Exclusion BilV against 
the Duke of York. The last of these met in 1681 at 
the loyal and Tory city of Oxford, for Charles feared 
that the House of Commons, if assembled in its 
wonted place, might, in imitation of the Long Parlia- 
ment, declare itself permanent, and call on the 
Londoners to support it. As it was, the Whig members 
came escorted by mounted tenants and serving-men, 
as well armed as the royal Guards. The Commons 
still insisting on the Exclusion Bill, the King dissolved 
the Parliament after seven days ; and irritated by 



XXXV.] THE WHIG PLOTS. 239 

these persistent attempts to exclude his brother from 
the succession, for the remaining four years of his reign 
he ruled without a Parliament. Money sufficient for 
carrying on the government was obtained from Louis of 
France. As the borough corporations, which then 
returned a majority of the representatives of the 
Commons, were the strongholds of the Whigs, steps 
were taken to destroy their independence. On slight 
pretext, the Court of King's Bench pronounced that 
the City of London had forfeited its charter, and new 
regulations were made which placed it entirely under 
the power of the Crown — no mayor, sheriff, or recorder 
was to be admitted without the King's approval. 
Similar measures were taken with other Whig towns, 
many of which thought it best to surrender their 
liberties quietly — charters went down, it was said, 
" like the walls of Jericho." Many of the Whigs began 
to plan insurrections, or at least to take counsel how to 
overthrow the Tories ; while a few of the most desperate 
formed the ''Rye-House Plot'' for waylaying and assas- 
sinating the King and his brother. The Rye-House 
was a farm belonging to one of the conspirators, 
situated on the road by which the King would return 
from Newmarket. These projects being betrayed, 
r.overal persons suffered death ; amongst them. 
the upright and patriotic William, Lord Russell, and 
Algernon Sydney, a man of known Republican opinions, 
who had fought for the Parliament at Marston Moor. 
Both Russell and Sydney are deemed to have been 
wrongfully convicted. Russell, though saying that 
" he thought he had met with hard measure," accepted 
his fate with calmness. "The bitterness of death 
is past," he said, after he had bidden a last farewell 
to his dearly loved wife. Sydney would not address 
the people from the scaffold, saying that " he had made 
his peace with Heaven, and had nothing to say to 
men." He left however a paper which, while it set 
fortli the injustice of his condemnation, expressed his 



240 JAMES II. [CHAP 

thankfalness that he was to die " for that old cause 
in which I was from my youth engaged." Monmouth, 
who had been concerned in the Whig plots, went 
abroad ; and his rival the Duke of York after a while 
resumed his office of Lord High Admiral and his 
seat at the Council, the King dispensing, in his 
favour, with the provisions of the Test Act. While 
wavering as to his future policy, Charles was seized 
with a fit, and after lingering a few days, died on 
the 6th February, 1685. On his deathbed, after the 
Bishops had vainly pressed him to take the Sacra- 
ment, his brother secretly brought to him a monk, from 
whose hands he received the last rites of the Church 
of Rome. The people mourned him with genuine 
sorrow, for with all his faults he had never lost his 
personal popularity ; while his brother's accession to 
power was dreaded. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

JAMES II. 

James II. (i) — the Western Rebellion.' beneading of 
Monmouth; the Bloody Assizes (2) — mis government 
of Ja7nes; Declaration of Indulgetue (3) — trial of the 
Seven Bishops (4) — birth of the, Pretender (5) — invita- 
tion to the Pritice of Orange (6) — landing of the Prince; 
flight of the Queen and King (7) — return and second 
flight of fames ; the Declaration of Right; the Crown 
accepted by the Prifice and Princess of Orange {S)—rthe 
Huguenots (9) — literature {16) — science (11) — architec- 
ture (12). 

I. James II., y^Zc^-t.^Z'^.— James, Duke ofYorky 
came to the throne under the disadvantage of holding 
a faith abhorred by the majority of his subjects ; but as 
he was thought to be a man of his word, people relied 
on the assurance which he gave to the Privy Cound) 



xxxvi.] THE WESTERN REBELLION. 241 

that he would support the Church of England and 
respect the laws. Yet he soon tried the Protestant 
loyalty by going in royal state to mass in Whitehall 
— a step which raised the hopes of the Roman Catholics 
as much as it troubled their opponents. Unwilling to 
be wholly dependent upon Parliament, James, though 
not without reluctance, accepted money from Louis of 
France. It was nevertheless necessary to summon a 
Parliament ; but every art was employed to influence 
and control the elections, and with such success 
that James said there were only some forty members 
that were not such as he wished for, 

2. The Western Rebellion. — Four months 
after the accession of James, the Duke of Monmouth, 
instigated and accompanied by a knot of Whigs who, 
having been implicated in the Plot of 1683, had found 
shelter in the Low Countries, landed with about 
eighty followers at Lyme in Dorsetshire, and called the 
people to arms. At Taunton, a thriving clothier- 
town of Puritan opinions, he caused himself to be 
proclaimed King, June 20, 1685. The Western 
peasantry and townsfolk flocked to his standard; 
but the gentry held aloof, and, contrary to his hopes, 
none of the Whig nobles joined him. On the 6th 
July, he was defeated in an attempt to surprise the 
royal army on Sedgemoor. His cavalry, untrained 
men on half-broken horses, gave way under fire, but 
his infantry, composed of peasants and artisans, many 
armed only with scythes, made a gallant stand. The 
Mendip miners in particular fought desperately, though 
deserted by Monmouth, who, seeing that the day was 
lost, fled away. Two days later, worn out with hunger 
and fatigue, he was captured whilst hiding in a ditch. 
Shortly after his landing, he had been attainted of 
treason by Act of Parliament ; and it was in vain that 
he fell at the King's feet and begged for life. He 
was beheaded on the 15th July, and his followers were 
treated with fearful seventy. Several "were summarily 



242 JAMES IL [CHAP. 

hanged by the royal general Lorrts Duras, a Frenchman 
who had been made Earl of Feversham, and by 
Colonel Percy Kirke, whom Feversham left in com- 
mand at Bridgewater. Kirke, a hard-hearted and law- 
less man, had been commandant at Tangier, where 
he had ruled as a petty tyrant ; and his soldiers were 
worthy of their leader. On their flag they bore the 
emblem of the Paschal Lamb, whence, with an ironical 
allusion to their ferocity, the name of " Kirke's 
Lambs " was fixed upon them. The Chief Justict 
Jeffreys, notorious for his brutal demeanour on the 
judgment-seat, and for the delight he seemed to take 
in passing sentence, came dowr. to hold the " Bloody 
Assizes" as they were named. The first victim was 
the widow of one of Cromwell's lords, Alice Lisle^ who 
had given shelter to two fugitive rebels. She was be- 
headed at Winchester, intercession for her life having 
in vain been made with the King. The result of the 
Bloody Assizes was that three hundred and twenty 
persons suffered death, and more than double that 
number were sold for a term of slavery in the West 
Indies \ many others were scourged or fined. The 
services of Jeffreys, who boasted that he had hanged 
more traitors than all his predecessors since the Con- 
quest, and who at the same time made a fortune by 
the sale of pardons, were rewarded with the Chan- 
cellorship. Favoured courtiers received batches of the 
rebels for sale, or were allowed to wring heavy sums 
from rich delinquents. Thus the Maids of Honour 
obtained a large sum as the price of the pardon of a 
band of schoolgirls who had presented a royal flag 
to Monmouth at Taunton. 

3. Government of James. — The King, now at 
the height of power, set his heart upon obtaining 
a repeal of the Habeas Corpus Act, upon keeping 
up a large army, and above all, upon abolishing or 
dispensing with the laws which shut out Roman 
Catholics from office and Parliament. Finding that 



XXXVI.] MISGOVERNMENT OF JAMES. Z43 

his Parliament, though strongly Tory, would not 
sanction his keeping officeis of his own religion in the 
army, he {H^orogued it ; and disregarding the advice of 
the wiser among the Roman Catholics and of the 
Pope, Innocent XI. ^ who would have had him govern 
according to law, he gave himself up to the secret 
councils of a knot of violent men, headed by a Jesuit 
named Edward Petre. Those of his ministers and 
judges who stood in the way of his schemes were 
dismissed, favour being shown to none except those 
who would lend themselves to his purposes ; and from 
that, even loyal Tories shrank. Four judges had to be 
replaced by more subservient men before the King could 
obtain a decision that he might lawfully dispense with 
penal statutes ir particular cases. After this, he could 
employ a Roman Catholic who had not taken the test 
imposed by law; and he at once used his power to make 
Roman CathoHcs privy councillors, and even to allow 
clergymen who had gone over to the Church of Rome 
to keep the benefices which had been bestowed on 
them when they were Protestants. Ireland was placed 
under the rule of a Roman Catholic descendant of 
an old Norman-Irish family, Richard Talbot^ Earl of 
Tyrconnel, who detested the Protestant settlers, and 
filled all offices with men of his own creed. Although 
two Acts of Parliament had abolished the High Com 
mission Court of Elizabeth, and forbidden the erection 
of any similar tribunal, a new Ecclesiastical Commis- 
sion, with Jeffreys at its head, was set up for the purpose 
of coercing the clergy. Its first act was to summon 
the Bishop of London, Henry Covipton, who had given 
displeasure to the King, and to suspend him from 
his spiritual functions. A series of attacks were made 
upon the Church and the Universities, whose hitherto 
unshaken loyalty merited better treatment. One in 
particular which excited great indignation, was the 
ejection by the Ecclesiastical Commission of the 
Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford, for having 



244 JAMES IT. [chap 

maintained a President legally elected by themselves 
against two unqualified persons recommended one 
after the other by the King. A Roman Catholic 
had already been made Dean of Christchurch, one of 
the highest offices in the University ; and now Mag- 
dalen College was turned into a Roman Catholic 
seminary. Finding that the Tory gentry and the 
clergy, hitherto such staunch friends to the Crown, 
were all against him, James began to court the 
Protestant Dissenters ; and in hopes of conciliating 
them, as well as of serving his own religion, he pub- 
lished, April 4th, 1687, a Declaratio7i of Indulgence, 
suspending all penal laws against nonconformity, and 
dispensing with all religious tests. In judging of the 
King's conduct, it should be remembered that, whe- 
ther the statutes he thus set aside were good or bad, 
it was the duty of an English King to govern accord- 
ing to the constitution, and that in issuing the 
Declaration of Indulgence James committed an 
unconstitutional act. From ancient times indeed the 
Crown had exercised some power of dispensing, in 
favour of particular persons, with penal statutes ; and as 
long as this was only used in trifling matters, it excited 
no complaint. But it was a different matter when it was 
stretched to set aside at one stroke statutes which were 
held to be necessary safeguards of the English liberties. 
Moreover a Declaration of Indulgence by Charles IT. 
had been formally pronounced illegal, so that there was 
now no doubt on the subject as far as laws relating to 
ecclesiastical matters were concerned. Three months 
later James dissolved the Parliament, which had never 
met since its prorogation in 1685, and set himself, by 
again re-modelling the borough corporations, by dis- 
missing refractory Lords-Lieutenant, Deputy Lieu- 
tenants, and Justices, and by every other means in his 
power, to ensure the election of a more subservient 
one; but everywhere he found a resolute spirit of 
refiistance. 



Kxxvi.] THE SEVEN BISHOPS ^4$ 

4. The Seven Bishops. — In 1688 the King 
issued a second Declaration of Indulgence, which 
he ordered to be read at the time of divine service 
by the officiating ministers of all churches and 
chapels. A petition against this order was signed 
and presented by William Sancroft, Archbishop of 
Canterbury, and six Bishops of his Province. This the 
King received with great anger, telling the Bishops 
that their petition was " a standard of rebellion ; " and 
being further incensed by the most part of the clergy 
disobeying his order to read the Declaration, he 
resolved to bring the petitioners before the Court of 
King's Bench on a charge of seditious libel. " The 
Seven Bishops " were committed to the Tower, amid 
marks of public sympathy and respect from all 
quarters. As the barge which conveyed them 
from Whitehall to prison passed down the Thames, 
one cry of " God bless your Lordships " rose from all 
the boats on the river.' The very sentinels at the 
" Traitors' Gate," the water entrance of the Tower, 
asked their blessing. All Protestants, of whatever 
religious body, regarded them as the champions of 
Protestantism against Rome. The main point at issue 
in the Bishops' trial was, whether their petition was, as 
the Crown lawyers argued, " a false, malicious, and 
seditious libel;" and this involved inquiry into the 
King's right to dispense with statutes, and the sub- 
ject's right to petition for redress of grievances. 
The trial, at which not one of the judges ventured 
to say that the Declaration of Indulgence was legal, 
ended with a verdict of ^^ Not Guilty;'' and at this 
result the national delight knew no bounds. West- 
minster Hall rang with cheers, which were echoed 
and re-echoed through the streets of London. James 
received the news at Hounslow, where his army was 
encamped. As he was setting out for London, hearing 
a great shout, he asked what it meant. " Nothing," 
was the answer, "the soldiers are glad that the 



24)6 JAMES II. [chap 

Bishops are acquitted." "Do you call that nothing ?' 
said James, who felt bitterly how complete his defeat 
had been. 

5. Birth of James Francis Stuart. — During 
this exciting time James Francis Edward^ son of 
King James and his second wife, Mary of Modena, 
was bom, June 10 — an event which, much as it elated 
the King's partisans, in reality hastened their down- 
fall. By his first wife, Anne Hyde, daughter of Lord 
Clarendon, the King had two children, Mary and 
Anne, both Protestants, and married to Protestants, 
Mary to her cousin William He?iry, Prince of Orange 
Nassau and Stadholder of Holland, Anne to George, 
Prince of Denmark. The nation had therefore hitherto 
endured James's misgovernment in the belief that 
the next reign would set things right. But the birth 
of this son changed the whole prospect ; and in their 
vexation the people raised a cry that the infant Prince 
was no child of the King and Queen. 

6. Invitation to William. — The leading mal- 
contents now took a decisive step. On the day of the 
Bishops' acquittal, June 30, a secret invitation to the 
Prince of Orange to come over at the head of a suffi- 
cient force, with the assurance that the greatest part of 
the nation would support him, was despatched. This 
paper, signed in cipher by the seven chiefs of the 
c(j?ispiracy — the Earls of Shrewsbury, Devonshire, and 
Danby, Lord Lum ley, Henry Compton, Bishop of Loiidon, 
Edward Russell, and Henry Sydney — was carried to 
Holland by Ad?niral Herbert, disguised as a common 
sailor. The seven who thus undertook to speak for 
theii countrymen were men whose birth and position 
gave William some guaranty that he would be sup 
ported by the nobles and gentry. Devonshire was the 
head of the Whig nobles ; Danby was an old Tory 
and a former minister of Charles II. ; Shrewsbury, a 
convert from the Church of Rome, had recently been 
dismissed from the Lord-Lieutenancy of Staffordshire 



5CXXV1.] LANDING OF WILLIAM. 247 

for refusing to serve the King's ends. Bishop Compton, 
who likewise lay under the royal displeasure, belonged 
to a noble family which was noted for its loyalty 
in the Civil Wars ; Lumley, another convert from 
Rome, had done good service in putting down Mon- 
mouth's insurrection. Russell, a naval officer, was 
cousin to the Lord Russell who had been beheaded 
in the last reign ; Sydney was brother to Algernon 
Sydney. Unwitting of the perils thickening around 
him, James went on in his course. To ascertain 
the temper of the army, the regiment now called 
the 1 2th of the Line was drawn up in his pre- 
sence, and told that all who would not subscribe an 
engagement to assist in carrying into effect his 
Majesty's intentions concerning the test must quit the 
service. To the King's amazement, the soldiers, with 
but few exceptions, at once laid down their pikes 
and muskets. So much had the English army caught 
the spirit of resistance, that he sent over for Irish 
troops of his own creed, raised and trained by Tyr- 
connel. In vain did Louis of France warn James 
of his danger ; not till the Prince of Orange and his 
armament were ready to sail did the King open his 
eyes. Then he attempted to conciliate his subjects 
by abolishing the Ecclesiastical Commission, restoring 
the charter of the City of London and the forfeited 
franchises of the municipal corporations, redressing 
the wrongs of Magdalen College, and replacing the 
magistrates and Deputy Lieutenants who had been 
dismissed for refusing to support his policy; but it 
was too late. 

7. Landing of William. — William put forth a 
Declaration stating that he was coming to protect the 
liberties of England, and to secure the calling of a 
free Parliament, which should redress grievances and 
inquire into the birth of the Prince of Wales. On the 
Sth of November, 1688, being well served by the 
wind, which prevented tb 2 King's fleet from pursuing 



^48 JAMES IL [CHAP 

hjm, he landed with his army at Torbay where he was 
received with good wiU by the common people, though 
it was some days before any men of note joined him. 
Gradually adherents of rank came in ; the North was 
raised in his cause by Lord Delamer and the Earls 
of Devonshire and Danby. Delamer put himself at 
the head of his tenants in Cheshire ; while Danby, 
with a hundred horsemen, seized upon York, gain- 
ing over the militia there to the Prince's side ; and 
the Earl of Devonshire, mustering his friends and 
dependents, marched to Nottingham, where many 
other peers joined him. Officers of the royal army, 
chief among them Lord ChurchilL afterwards the 
great Duke of Marlborough, went over to the Prince ; 
v/hile James, unable to trust his own soldiers, 
retreated before the invader. The King's distress 
was aggravated by finding that his daughter Anne 
had, together with her favourite, Lady Churchill, 
fled to the northern insurgents. " God help me ! " 
he exclaimed, " my own children have forsaken 
me." Rather than undo all that he had done for the 
Roman Catholics, and break with France, he planned 
the escape of his family and himself. On a stormy 
night the Queen, escorted by a Frenchman, the Count 
of Lauzun, stole out of Whitehall with her infant child, 
and fled to France. At three o'clock in the morning 
of the nth December the King set out to follow her. 
Whilst crossing the Thames in a wherry, he flung the 
Great Seal into the stream, whence it was accidentally 
fished up after many months. Without affixing the 
Great Seal, no writ for summoning a Parliament 
could be issued, no commissions for holding the 
assizes completed ; so that by carrying it off", Jame.s 
meant to put a stop to the regular course of govern- 
ment. 

8. The Interregnum. — As there was now no 
government, such Lords as were at hand, with Arch- 
bishop Sancroft at their head, took upon themselves a 



xxxvi.] THE REVOLUTION. 249 

temporary authority, and sent to the Prince of Orange, 
requesting his presence in London. The City was in 
a stale of utter disorder, but the riotous mob showed 
no disposition towards bloodshed, except in one case. 
The Lord Chancellor Jeffreys, disguised as a colliei 
sailor, being discovered in an alehouse at Wapping, 
was in peril of his life. At his own entreaty, the 
Lords sent him to the Tower, where he died in 1689, 
his end being hastened by drinking. Meanwhile the 
King had not succeeded in leaving the country, and 
having been stopped near Sheerness by some rough 
fishermen, who took him forafugitive Jesuit, he returned 
to London. The Tories, who had considered them- 
selves freed from their allegiance by his desertion, 
felt that the case was altered when he was still in his 
kingdom. To frighten him to a second escape was 
therefore the policy of William, who, sending his troops 
to take possession of Whitehall, signified his desire 
that James should withdraw. The fallen King thereupon 
retired, escorted by Dutch soldiers, to Rochester, and 
being there guarded with intentional negligence, he 
soon carried out his enemies' wishes by taking flight, 
December 23, to France, where he was received with 
generous kindness by Louis XIV. At the invitation 
of an assembly of Peers and commoners, the Prince 
of Orange took on himself the government, and sum- 
moned a Convention of the Estates of the Realm, 
which met Jan. 22, 1689. After long discussion, this 
Convention resolved, " that it hath been found by ex- 
perience to be inconsistent with the safety and welfare 
of this Protestant Kingdom to be governed by a Popish 
Prince," and that King James IL, " having endea- 
voured to subvert the constitution," " having violated 
the fundamental laws," and "having withdrawn himselt 
out of this Kingdom," had "abdicated the government," 
and that the throne was "thereby become vacant." 
That there might never again be any room for dispute 
between the sovereign and the nation, a Declaration 



250 JAMES II. [cHAr 

of Right was drawn up, which asserted the ancient 
rights and liberties of England ; and, in " entire con- 
fidence" that these would be preserved by William, the 
Lords and Commons offered the Crown to him and his 
wife. The offer, formally made on the 13th February, 
was accepted ; and thus was completed the English 
Revolution. The sovereignty of Ireland \NQn\. with that 
of England ; and a few months later the Crown of 
Scotland was bestowed upon William and Mary by the 
Estates of that country. William had plainly declared 
that he would accept no lower position than that of 
King ; and though Mary, as being the heiress by birth- 
right, was made in form joint sovereign with her 
husband, the administration of government was placed 
in his hands alone. 

9. The Huguenots. — In 1685 Louis XIV. re- 
voked the Edict ofNajttes^ under which the ffugiiefwts, 
as the French Protestants were called, had hitherto 
enjoyed a certain amount of religious liberty. In 
consequence of this revocation and the accompanying 
persecutions, thousands of brave, intelligent, and in- 
dustrious men fled from his dominions, carrying their 
valour and their skill to other lands. Many of these 
refugees settled in Spitalfields, London, and there 
introduced the manufacture of silk. Others, taking 
military service with the Prince of Orange, turned 
their swords against their former King. Many 
families in England trace their descent to these 
Huguenot refugees. The revocation of the Edict of 
Nantes made a great impression in England, and in 
fact went a long way towards stirring up the Parlia- 
ment to withstand James. What Louis had done, 
men thought James would do, if he was once 
allowed to get the chance. 

10. Literature. — Among the divines of the Stuart 
\)Qnod, Jeremy Taylor^ who died in 1667, is celebrated 
for his devotional works and for his sermons, the 
finest that had yet been heard in the English Church, 



icxxvi.] LITERATURE. 251 

Richard Baxter, notable as the author of the Saints' 
Everlasting Rest, was one of the ministers driven out 
by the Act of Uniformity of 1662, and bore his 
share of the harsh treatment to which Nonconformists 
were exposed. Lord Clarendon, noted as the minister 
of Charles II., is also famous as the historian of the 
stirring times through which he had lived. His Ifistory 
of the Rebellio7i and Civil Wars in England, despite 
its inaccuracies and Royalist prejudices, remains one 
of the great works of our literature. Izaak Walton, 
" the Father of Angling," as he is called, published in 
1653 The Complete Angler, which is more than a 
mere treatise upon fishing. Its quaint grace, and its 
feehng for rural scenes, render it interesting even to 
those who care nothing for its subject. Under 
Charles I., there grew up a school of Royahst writers 
of love and war songs, some of which may still 
be found in most collections of poetry. Among 
poets of higher pretensions was Abraham Cowley, 
who in his own day was accounted unrivalled, though 
he is flow little read. Another noted poet was 
Edmund Waller^ who employed his talents to praise 
Cromwell during the Protectorate, and Charles II. 
at the Restoration. Samuel Butler was the author 
of Hudibras, a burlesque poem against the Puritans, 
the hero, from whom it has its name, being a half- 
crazy Presbyterian justice, who undertakes the reform 
of abuses. The Commonwealth party, though not 
m general favoured by the wits and versifiers, could 
claim for its own one of the greatest poets of Eng- 
land, John Milton, who wrote in defence of the 
sxecution of Charles I., and held the post of Latin 
Secretary to the Commonwealth's Council of State. 
His chief work, Paradise Lost, was published in 1667. 
Of his beautiful minor poems many were written 
before the Civil Wars began. The most notable of 
his prose writings is the Areopagitica, an eloquent plea 
^* for the Liberty of Unlicens-ed Printing." This was 



252 JAMES II. [CHAP 

called forth by an order of the Long Parliameni 
in 1643 that no book, pamphlet, or paper, should 
be printed unless it was approved and licensed by 
some person appointed by either of the two Houses. 
In this they onfy followed the example set them b) 
the Star Chamber, and Milton's arguments produced 
no alteration of the system. Milton died in 1674, 
having been blind for more than twenty years. John 
Bimyan, the greatest of allegorical writers, born in 
1628 near Bedford, was brought up to the trade of a 
tinker, and served for a short time as a soldier during 
the Civil War. Joining himself to the Baptists, he 
becime noted as a preacher ; and it was after the 
Restoration, while lying in Bedford gaol for the offence 
of upholding "unlawful meetings and conventicles," 
that he composed the first part of the Pilgrim's 
Progress. This religious allegory became the delight 
of pious people among the poor, although it was more 
than a century before the genius of its author was 
acknowledged by literary critics. Many of its scenes 
and characters give a good idea of the age to which 
it belongs. Bunyan's devout warriors show us what 
the pick of the Puritan soldiery were like ; and 
his trial of Faithful before Lord Hategood is a picture, 
by no means over-coloured, of the sort of trial which 
a Nonconformist or a political offender often received. 
The reaction against the Puritan over-strictness showed 
itself strongly in the polite literature of the time ol 
Charles II., above all in the comic dramas, which 
were a disgrace to the age — not that they lacked wit, 
humour, or dramatic skill, but because they were 
morally bad to a degree which testifies to the debased 
state of the society which delighted in them. Writing 
for the stage being then the most profitable employ- 
ment for an author, John Dryden, chief of the poets 
of the Restoration school, spent his best years upon 
dramatic composition, for which his talents w^re 
unsuited. As a lyric poet, and especially as a satirist 



XXXVI.] LITERATURE AND SCIENCE. 253 

he stands high, one of his most famous works being 
the satiric poem of Absalom and Achitophel, undei 
which names the Duke of Monmouth and his ally 
the Earl of Shaftesbury are aimed at. The Whigs 
of the Revolution were fortunate in being able to 
show on their side some of the chief names of the 
age. To them belonged the philosopher Isaac 
Newton, and the great jurist and politician, Lord 
Somers, who was one of the counsel for the Seven 
Bishops, and chairman of the committee by which the 
Declaration of Right was drawn up. Of them also 
was John Locke, a friend and confidant of Lord 
Shaftesbury. Falling, on the discovery of the Whig 
plots in 1683, under suspicion, Locke withdrew to 
Holland, and was punished by a royal order arbitrarily 
removing him from his studentship at Christ Church, 
Oxford. A staunch supporter of civil and religious 
liberty, he wrote in defence of toleration ; while bis 
fame as a philosopher was established by the publication 
in 1690 of his Essay concerning Human Utiderstandifig. 
In his two Treatises of Government, he put forward the 
Whig theory that when a ruler broke the law, he forfeited 
his claim to obedience. A less noted Whig writer 
was Gilbert Burnet (made after the Revolution Bishop 
of SaHsbury), a clergyman of Scottish birth, author of 
the History of the Reformation in Eiigland, the first 
volume of which gained him the honour of a vote 
of thanks from Parliament, which was then excited 
by the Popish Plot. He left a History of his Own 
Time, which was published after his death in 17 15. 

II. Science. — Among the famous men who lived 
under the first Stuart Kings was the physician William 
Harvey, who made the discovery of the circulation 
of the blood. The Restoration period, howevei 
politically discreditable, was a time of great advances 
in science. The Royal Society, which numbered 
among its first members men illustrious in chemistry, 
in astronomy, in mathematics, in botany, and io 



254 JAMES II. [CHAf 

zoology, was established shortly after the Restoration 
[ohn Flamsteed^ from whose time dates the beginning 
of modern astronomy, was the first Astronomer- 
Royal, the Observatory at Greenwich being founded 
by Charles II. for the benefit of navigation. Tht 
greatest name in science is that of Isaac Newtofi^ 
famed for his wonderful discoveries in mathematics 
and natural philosophy. He was born in Lincoln 
shire in 1642, and died in 1727, in his eighty -fifth 
year. His chief work, the Frinapta, was published 
in 1687. 

12. Architecture. — Under the Tudors Gothic 
architecture had begun to go down. Italian details 
became more and more mixed with it, and the style 
called Elizabethan was the result The pure Italian 
style, in imitation of ancient Roman architecture, was 
brought into England early in the seventeenth century 
by Inigo Jones, and superseded l^othic, which was 
now little regarded or understood. Sir Christopher 
Wren, admirable in the style of hi> age, failed when 
he imitated Gothic, as the tovv.jrs b added to West- 
minster Abbey still serve to show. His finest work 
is the cathedral church of St. Paul, vsbich was com- 
pleted in 1 7 1 o. He died in 1723, at tb ^ age of ninety, 
and was buried in the crypt of his own vreat church, 
with this epitaph : — " Si monumentum reqniri'^, circum- 
spiced ("If thou seekest his monuA^H»»t looV 
around,") 



xxxvii.] WILLIAM AND MARY. aSS 

CHAPTER XXXVII. 

WILLIAM AND MARY. WILLIAM III. 

William and Mary ; the Non-jurors {\) — war in Ireland j 
siege of Londonderry ; battle of the Boyne (2) — battlt 
of La Hague; Peace of Ryswick j the National Debt j 
there-coinage; Assassination Plot; the Bank of Eng- 
land (3) — death of Queen Mary (4) — opposition to 
William; the Spanish Succession (5) — legislationj 
Bill of Rights ; Act of Settlement and other statutes (6). 

1. William and Mary, 1689-1694. William 
III., — 1702. — From youth upwards one idea had 
possessed the soul of William of Oi-ange — that of 
breaking the power of Louis XIV. — and he valued 
his English kingdom chiefly as a means towards this 
end. Though weak in body, the energy of his spirit 
was unconquerable, and no danger ever daunted him. 
His manners however were cold, his temper sour, and 
he roused the English jealousy by placing men of his 
own nation about him. His wife was an amiable 
woman ; but the Jacobites^ that is, the extreme Tories 
who adhered to James, never ceased to taunt her for 
having ousted her father. Many Tories thought the 
deposition of the King wrong, and on this scruple, 
about four hundred clergymen and members of the 
Universities, with Bancroft and six other bishops at 
their head, resigned their preferments rather than 
swear allegiance to the new sovereigns. These 
men, among whom were five of the famous " Seven 
Bishops," were known as the Non-jurors. 

2. Ireland. — As yet William was King of Ireland 
in little more than name. That country was divided 
between the Roman Catholic "■ Irishry," — the original 
Irish and the descendants of the Norman- English 
settlers^ probably about a million in number, — and 



250 WILLIAM AND MARY. LCHap 

the Protestant " Englishry," consisting of about 
200,000 English and Scottish colonists, who owned 
more than four-fifths of the property of Ireland, and 
whose inferiority in number was compensated by theil 
superiority in wealth and civilization. The Lord- 
Deputy of Ireland, Tyrconnel, invited James over 
from his refuge in France, and raising his standard 
with the motto, " Now or never ! Now and for ever! " 
called his countrymen to arms. The whole Irish 
race rose in answer — not that they cared for James, 
but because they desired independence, — and Tyr- 
connel soon mustered a mighty though half-savage 
host Louis of France furnished arms, money, and 
officers, and James, thus equipped, landed in Ireland 
in March 1689, and held in Dublin a Parliament of 
his adherents, in which he gave his consent to tht 
great Act of Attainder, whereby between two and three 
thousand Protestants were attainted of treason. The 
Englishry meanwhile stood gallantly at bay in Ennis- 
killen and Londonderry. The latter city, under the 
government of Major Henry Baker and an aged 
clergyman, George Walker, was besieged by James's 
forces ; and though reduced to extremity of hunger, 
its defenders hardly able to keep their feet for very 
weakness, it held out for a hundred and five days, 
until relieved from England. At the same time the 
Ennibkilleners routed the Jacobites at the village of 
Newton Butler. In the summer of the next year, 
William himself went over to Ireland. England, 
dreading the power of Louis XIV., and provoked by 
his interference, had joined the general league — the 
'•'■ Grand Alliance," as it was called — of the chief 
powers of Europe against France. William's departure 
tnerefore was made the occasion of an attempt upon 
England by the French in concert with the Jacobites ; 
and Admiral Herbert, who had been created Earl oj 
Torrington^ was ignominiously worsted in an engage- 
ment with the French fleet off Beachy Head. But 



XXXVII.] WAR IN IRELAND. 257 

comfort came in the news of a decisive victory won 
by William on the ist of July, 1690, over the Irish 
and French, who, led by James, Tyrconnel, and 
Lauzun made a stand behind the river Boyne. 
William's army forced the passage after a sharp 
struggle, WiUiam himself leading his cavalry through 
the river, and, with his sword in the left hand 
— for his other arm was crippled by a wound — 
showing himself wherever the fight was hottest. His 
best general, Marshal Schomberg^ a German Pro- 
testant who had once been in the French service, 
was killed while rallying the Huguenots in William's 
army. " Come on, gentlemen, there are your per- 
secutors," he cried, urging them on against the enemy. 
Walker, who had lately been made Bishop of Lon- 
donderry, and had accompanied his townsmen to the 
battle, fell at the same spot. "What took him 
there ? " said William, who thought his presence un- 
called-for. James, when he saw the day going against 
him, galloped off, and reproaching his Irish troops 
with cowardice, made his way to the coast, whence he 
sailed for France. Meanwhile the French admiral, 
the Count of Tourvilie, finding that, contrary to the 
prediction of the exiled Jacobites, the country did not 
rise to join him, departed, after having sacked the 
defenceless town of Teignmouth. The reduction of 
Ireland to England was effected the next year by 
the Dutch general Ginkell, afterwards created Earl 
of Athlone, who gained, July 12, 1691, the battle 
of Aghrim over the Irish and their new French 
general, St. Ruth^ who fell in the fight. Limerick^ 
their last stronghold, surrendered to Ginkell in 
October, its gallant defender, Patrick Sarsfield, and as 
many as would follow him, being permitted to pass 
to the French service. The domination of the 
colonists was now assured, and rigorous laws were 
made to hold down the Roman Catholics, the bravest 
and best of whom, being denied all chance of rising 



258 WILLIAM AND MARY. [CHAP 

in their own land, entered the service of foreign 
states. 

3. The War with France — In 1692, during 
William's absence :>n the Continent, another French 
invasion was projected; but the allied English and 
Dutch fleets, commanded in chief bv Admiral Russell^ 
attacked and defeated Admiral Tourville in the 
Channel, chased the enemy to the Bay of La Hague, 
and there burned the French ships in the sight of 
James. There was great rejoicing at this victory, not 
merely because people were proud of the exploit, but 
because it saved the island from invasion. It was 
a grievous blow to James, who had been led to 
beheve that the English fleet was more likely to 
join than to oppose him. Russell himself, one of the 
seven who had signed the invitation to William, had 
lately been in treasonable correspondence with the 
exiled King ; but on the day of battle he did his duty. 
Many indeed of William's English servants were not 
thoroughly to be trusted — like Russell, they secured 
themselves against the chances of a counter-revolution, 
or gratified feelings of irritation against the existing 
government, by playing fast and loose between the 
rival Kings. On land the struggle was chiefly carried 
on in the Spanish Netherlands (Belgium and Luxem- 
burg), where William led his army in person. He 
was more than once defeated, but his patience and 
tenacity, and the skill with which he repaired a loss, 
made him a match for his more brilliant adversaries 
At last Louis, worn out by the long war, con^ 
sented to acknowledge the Prince of Oran^^e as 
King of Great Britain ; and this led to the general 
peace which was made at Ryswick in 1697. Although 
the English had not to fight on their own soil, 
this war put a great strain upon their resources. 
In 1692, the year of La Hogue, the land-tax was 
first imposed, and this being found insufficient, the 
government next raised money by a loan. Thus 



XXXVII.] DEATH OF MARY. 259 

began the National Debt. Among the difficulties of 
the country must be reckoned the bad state of its 
silver coin, arising from the fraudulent practice ol 
" clipping." The coinage of additional money, with 
its edges so milled that it could not be clipped without 
detection, seemed only to aggravate the evil; for 
every man tried to pay in light, and to be paid in 
lieavy coin. At last, in 1696, an Act was passed for 
a new coinage, and while this was going on, much 
inconvenience and even hardship was caused by the 
scarcity of silver, although the Mint, with the great 
philosopher Isaac Newton at its head, coined faster 
than it had ever done before. Fortunately at this 
moment, when the patience of the nation was thus 
severely tried, the King happened to be in special 
favour, owing to the general indignation at a recently 
detected Jacobite conspiracy for his assassination on 
his way back from hunting. In the excitement caused 
by this discovery, more than four hundred of the 
Commons solemnly pledged themselves to stand by 
William in life or to avenge him in death, and their 
example was generally followed throughout the nation. 
The management of the re-coinage reflected great 
credit upon the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
Charles Montague^ a young Whig, noted for bring- 
ing about the foundation, in 1694, of the Bank of 
England^ on a plan devised by a Scotsman, William 
Paterson. 

4. Death of Mary. — In 1694, on the 28th 
December, Queen Mary died of small-pox. Not 
long afterwards, by her husband's orders, the un- 
finished palace of Greenwich was turned into an 
hospital for seamen of the Royal Navy ; and thus, in 
honour of her memory, was carried out the wish she 
had formea at the time when difficulty was found in 
providing for the many wounded at La Hogue. The 
additions to the palace were made by Sir Christopher 
Wren. 



26o WILLIAM III. [CHAP 

5. The Spanish Succession. — After the Peace 
of Ryswick came a time of sore mortification to 
William. Not only did the new House of Commons, 
which met in 1698, insist on having the greater part 
of the army disbanded, but they further forced him 
to send away all his foreign troops. He stooped to 
ask as a personal favour that his Dutch Guards might 
stay, but in vain. To the mass of Englishmen, whether 
Tories or Whigs, the very name of standing army was 
hateful. The Tory remembered that by a standing army 
Cromwell had made himself master of England ; the 
Whig remembered that by a standing army Charles and 
James had hoped to carry out their designs against 
the English liberties and religion. Fresh ill-feeling 
arose between the King and the Commons on the 
subject of the disposal of forfeited land in Ireland, 
much of which he had bestowed on his personal 
friends. The Commons constrained him to give his 
assent to an Act for annulling all his Irish grants, and 
applying the forfeitures to the public service. Abroad 
too the prospect was gloomy. In 1700 Charles, 
Kmg of Spain, died childless, bequeathing his vast 
dominions — Spain, the Indies, the Netherlands, 
Naples, Sicily, and Milan — to his kinsman Philip, 
Duke of Anjou, a grandson of Louis XIV. The 
danger of a general war arising out of the rival claims 
of the Houses of Austria and of France to the 
Spanish succession had long been foreseen ; and in 
hopes of averting strife and especially of preventing 
Spain from falling to a French prince, two successive 
" Partition Treaties,'' providing for the division of the 
Spanish dominions, had already been made between 
England and the United Provinces on the one side 
and France on the other. By the last of these treaties 
the Archduke Charles of Austria, son of the Emperor 
Leopold I., was to have the Indies, the Netherlands, 
and Spain itself, with the exception of the province 
of Guipuzcoa, which, with the kingdom of Naples 



XXXVII.] THE SPANISH SUCCESSION. 261 

and Sicily, was to pass to the Dauphin, son of Louis 
XIV. When, regardless of this engagement, Louis 
accepted for his grandson the bequest of the entire 
Spanish monarchy, William desired at once to take 
steps to prevent such an overwhelming increase of the 
French power. Having parted with his Whig advisers, 
he called Tories to his councils, and summoned a 
new Parliament, which met early in 1701. But the 
House of Commons, in which the Tories were strong, 
showed no disposition to support him against France. 
Its chief object was to hunt down the late Whig 
ministers, against whom it prepared articles of im- 
peachment, one of the charges against them being 
their share in the Partition Treaties, which were 
thought to have been framed more for the benefit of the 
Dutch than the English. Altogether the Commons 
displayed such bitterness and party spirit that the 
people gradually turned against their own representa- 
tives. A petition, signed by a number of gentlemen 
and freeholders of Kent, was sent up, protesting 
against any distrust of the King, and begging the 
House to turn its loyal addresses into Bills of Supply 
and to enable his Majesty to assist his allies. This so 
angered the House that it sent to prison the five 
Kentish gentlemen who had brought up the petition. 
But the incident showed the turn of feeling towards 
the Whig side ; and William's cause was served by 
the imprudence of the French King. In September 
1 701, James II. died, and, in the face of the Treaty 
of Ryswick, his son, whom the Jacobites called 
/ames III., and the Whigs called ^^ the Fretendery" 
was recognized by Louis as King of England, Scot- 
land, and Ireland. This roused general indigna- 
tion, William seized the opportunity to dissolve the 
Parliament and to call another, which, meeting Dec. 
30, 1701, requested William to make no peace with 
France until reparation for this affront was obtained. 
The King's health was breaking down, but, nerved 



ifa WILLIAM IIL [CHAP. 

by thoughts of the work before him, he still bore 
up. In February 1702, when he was riding at 
Hampton Court, his horse fell over a mole-hill, the 
King was thrown, and broke his collar-bone; sink- 
ing under the shock, he died on the 8th March, in 
his fifty-second year. As Queen Mary had had no 
children, the Crown, according to the settlement 
made by the Declaration and Bill of Rights ^ passed 
to the Princess Anne of Denmark. 

6. Legislation. — Chief among the statutes of 
this reign stands the Bill of Rights^ which, after re- 
citing the Declaration of the Convention, declared it, 
with some additions, to be law. The levying of 
money for the use of the Crown, without grant of 
Parliament, the keeping of a standing army in time 
of peace, unless by consent of Parliament, were 
herem declared illegal. The right of subjects to 
petition, of electors freely to choose their representa- 
tives, the right of the legislature to freedom of debate, 
the necessity of frequent parliaments, were affirmed. 
The methods by which in late years the administration 
of justice had been tampered with, the imposition of 
" excessive fines," the infliction of " cruel and unusual 
punishments," were condemned. The power, which 
James II. had illegally exercised, of dispensing 
with laws by regal authority was abolished ; and a 
Roman CathoHc, or any one marrying a Roman 
Catholic, was made incapable of wearing the Crown. 
The Toleration Act^ though not affording complete 
religious liberty, gave enough to satisfy the mass of 
the Protestant Dissenters ; Roman Catholics and 
deniers of the Trinity were excluded from its benefits. 
The oaths of allegiance and supremacy were replaced 
by new and simpler forms, that of supremacy consist- 
ing mainly of a renunciation of the Pope's authority. 
The first Mutiny Act gave the sovereign a temporary 
power of punishing mutiny or desertion by the special 
jurisdiction known as martial law. Similar Acts, 



XXXVII.] LEGISLATION. 263 

limited to a year's duration, are st-U the only means 
by which the Crown can legally keep an army. These 
statutes were all passed in the first year of William 
and Mary. In 1695 the press became firee ; hitherto 
nothing could be prmted without the licence of an 
officer appointed by the government, but now this 
censorship was given up, and newspapers at once 
made their appearance. In the next year was passed 
the Act for regulating of trials in cases of treason. 
Hitherto the law had placed those accused of high 
treason at great disadvantage, and before the Revolu- 
tion such trials had often been little better than 
judicial murders ; by this statute, among other 
provisions for securing the accused person a fair trial, 
it was enacted that he should have a copy of the 
indictment delivered to him five days before trial, 
and should be allowed to make his defence by counsel. 
The Act of Settlement, passed in 1701, settled the 
Crown, in default of heirs of Anne or of William, 
upon the granddaughter of James I. and daughter of 
Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, the Princess Sophia, 
Electress of Ha7iover, and her heirs, being Protestants. 
There were other families nearer in the order of inheri- 
tance than the House of Hanover, but they were passed 
over as being Roman Catholic. Some articles were 
inserted in the Act of Settlement, to take effect only 
after the succession under the new limitation to the 
House of Hanover. Of these, two of the most im- 
portant were, that whosoever should hereafter come 
to the possession of the Crown, should join in com- 
munion with the established Church of England ; and 
that the judges should hold their offices during good 
behaviour, not, as formerly, at the royal pleasure. In 
the following year a statute was passed which imposed 
on members of parliament, civil and military officers, 
ecclesiastics, lawyers and others, an oath of abjuration, 
by which they abjured the title of *'the pretended 
Prince of Wales," who had been proclaimed in 



264 ANNE. [CHAP 

France as King James III. of England, and bound 
themselves to maintain the settlement made of the 
Crown. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

ANNE. 

A fine; Prince George of Denmark ; the Duke and Duchesi 
of Marlborough (i)— War of the Spa7iish Succession ^ 
battles of Blenhei7n and Ramillies ; taking of Gibral- 
tar; the Earl of Peterborough ; battle of A Imanza j 
Sir Cloudesley Shovell ; battles of Oudenarde and 
M alplaquet (2) — the Union of Ejigland and Scot- 
land (3) — rise of the Tories; Peace of Utrecht (4) — 
death of Anne (5) — Queen Anne's Bounty (6) — the 
Dissenters (7). 

I. Anne, 1702-1714. — Queen Anne was a kind- 
hearted and well-meaning woman, rather slow of 
understanding and obstinate, though usually allowing 
herself to be led by those whom she liked. Her 
husband, Prince George of Denmark, of whom Charles 
II. said that he himself "had tried him drunk and 
sober, but there was nothing in him," was too insigni- 
ficant in character to have any influence. From girl- 
hood Anne had been ruled by the handsome and 
domineering Sarah Jennings, wife of Churchill ; and 
so close was their friendship that they corresponded 
with each other under the names of Mrs. Morley and 
Mrs. Freeman, the latter being adopted by the 
favourite to denote her frankness. John Churchill, 
created Earl, and afterwards Duke of Marlborougk^ 
who within a week of Anne's accession was made 
Cap tarn-General of the forces, was the ablest man of 
his time as a general and statesman, though he owed 
his favour with Anne chiefly to his wife's influence. 
Over him too Lady Marlborough's power was great 
She had been a court beauty of slender fortune, with 



sxxviii.] WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION. 265 

whom Churchill had made a love-match — in this 
overcoming the greed of money of which he was always 
accused — and his devotion to her proved lifelong. 
Brave, gentle, and of imperturbable serenity of temper, 
noted for the care and humanity, then unusual, which 
he showed towards prisoners of war, he was yet not 
free from the political faithlessness of the age. Aftei 
having at the Revolution deserted James for William, 
he had been disgraced for treasonable intrigues 
with James ; nevertheless William, foreseeing that he 
would be the moving spirit in the next reign, had after- 
wards given him high command, and employed him in 
negotiating foreign alliances. Though his wife now 
sided with the Whigs, who supported the late King's 
war policy, Marlborough himself passed for a Tory, 
and thereby gained increased influence with the 
Queen, who loved the Church and the Tories, whom 
she preferred to call *' the Church party." In truth 
he belonged to no party, his main objects being 
that war should be declared, and that he should com- 
mand the English forces. His policy therefore ran 
counter to that of the Tories, who thought that 
England ought as much as possible to confine her- 
self to naval warfare, and not to undertake great 
military operations on the Continent. A dislike of 
armed interference in Continental pohtics, inherited 
from the time of William, continued to be a mark 
of a Tory until the French Revolution of 1789, 
when the course of European politics was changed, 
and the Tories in their turn became the warlike 
party. 

2. War of the Spanish Succession. — King 
William's last work, a new alliance of England, 
Holland, and the Emperor against Louis XIV. and 
his grandson, survived him. This '' Grand A/liance'' 
was joined by many of the European powers, and war 
with France was soon afterwards declared, the Allies 
supporting the claim of the Archduke Charles of Austria 



i66 ANNE. (chap 

to the Spanish crown. Marlborough, in command of 
the aUied English and Dutrh forces, now entered upon 
that course of splendid achievements which gained 
him the high place he holds amoJig generals. In his 
first campaigns in the Netherlands he was hampered by 
the interference of the Dutch authorities ; but in 1704, 
leading his army into Bavaria, he joined his forces 
with those of the Emperor's general, Prina Eugene oj 
Savoy, in whom he found an able and zealous ally. 
On the 2nd August, 1704, he won, in concert with 
Eugene, the great battle of Blenheim over the allied 
French and Bavarians under Marshal Tallard, wlio 
was there taken prisoner. After the main body of 
Tallard's army was routed, about 11,000 French- 
men were surrounded in the village of Blenheim, 
and constrained to lay down their arms. The wreck 
of the French and Bavarian army retreated across 
the Rhine, and the fortunes of the French in 
Germany were ruined. The greatness of the success 
was not to be measured by its military results 
alone. For years men had looked upon Louis 
XIV. as well-nigh invincible; WiUiam himself had 
done little more than keep him in check. It was 
Marlborough who first turned the tide of French 
^success, and broke the spell of victory. Marlborough, 
in reward of his services, received the crown land of 
Woodstock, upon which was afterwards built the 
Palace of Blenheim. His next two campaigns were 
mainly carried on in the Netherlands, where, on the 
12th May, 1706, he won another great battle, that of 
Ramillies, But meanwhile the Allied arms had been 
less successful in the Spanish Peninsula, tliough the 
rock and fortress of Gibraltar, valuable as the key of 
the Mediterranean, were taken by Admiral Sir George 
Rooke and the Prince of Hesse-Darmstadt, and have 
ever since remained in the keeping of England. 
Charles Mardaunt, Earl of Peterborough, a clever, 
eccentric man, who flew about the world, seeing, it was 



TXXViii.] WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION. 267 

said, more kings and more postilions than any other 
man in Europe, for a while carried all before him in 
Spain ; but, as the Archduke Charles would not take 
his advice, he left in disgust and eventually he was 
recalled. Brilliant as his genius was, it had been 
wasted for lack of patience and forbearance ; unlike 
the placid Marlborough, he could not get on with 
the dull men about him, and Charles, whom he 
had served so well, was only thankful to be rid of 
him. After he had gone, affairs were mismanaged, 
and in 1707 the alhed English, Dutch, and Portu- 
guese were utterly defeated by the French on the 
plain of Almajiza. In this action the French were 
led by an Englishman, King James's illegitimate son 
the Duke of Berwick^ while the English were led by a 
Huguenot, the Marquess of Ruvigny, created Earl of 
Galway ; so that after all, as the Spaniards said in 
jest, " the English general had routed the French." 
Other disasters followed. Sir Cloudesley Shovell, who 
from a cabin-boy had risen to be one of the best of 
the Enghsh admirals, was lost with three of his vessels 
on the rocks of Scilly. It is said that he was cast 
ashore, and reached, worn out with fatigue, the 
hut of a woman, by whom he was murdered for the 
sake of a ring and other valuable property he had 
upon him. The next year was more fortunate, 
Marlborough and Eugene gaining the battle of 
Oudenarde in the Netherlands, and the island of 
Minorca being taken from the Spaniards. Other 
successes brought Louis to seek terms of peace ; but 
the allies required more than he would yield, specially 
pressing the humiUating condition that he should aid 
in driving his grandson from the Spanish throne. 
" If I must wage war," he said, '* I would rather wage 
it against my enemies than against my children ; " 
and, though his navy was swept from the seas 
and his people were starving, France yet nerved 
herself for another campaign, in which Marlborough 



268 ANNE. [CHAP 

and Eugene gained the bloody and fruitless victory 
of Malplaquet. 

3. The Union of England and Scotland.— 
The Union of England and Scotland into one Kingdom 
by the name of Great Britain was brought about in 
1707. Thenceforth there was only one Parliament 
for the two countries, and English^ Welshy and Scots 
were all included under the common name of British. 
The Crown of the United Kingdom was settled, as 
that of England had already been, in default of heirs 
of Anne, upon Sophia of Hanover. Scotland re- 
tained its Presbyterian form of Church-government. 
and its own laws, A national flag — the same as thai 
which had been ordered by James L, but which had 
never come into use — was appointed for the United 
Kingdom. 

4. Ascendancy of the Tories. — In 1709 it 
chanced that one Dr. Sacheverell preached two 
sermons, one before the Judges of Assize at Derby, 
the other before the Lord Mayor at St. Paul's, in 
which the Doctor spoke against the toleration granted 
to Dissenters, and put forward the then favourite 
Tory doctrine of non-resista?ice — that is, that nothing 
could justify a subject in taking up arms againpt his 
rightful sovereign. The Whigs, who felt this as a slur 
upon the Revolution, brought about his impeachment, 
and he was condemned by the Lords ; but his sentence 
was so light that the result was looked upon as a 
victory by his Tory friends ; and the common people, 
who were at this time all against the Whigs and the 
Dissenters, made great rejoicings. "God bless } our 
Majesty and the Church ! We hope your Majest}- is {^n 
Dr. Sacheverell," had been the cry of the crowd v/ho 
pressed round x'^nne's sedan-chair when she went to 
hear the trial. The stir about this business and the 
popular zeal for Sacheverell mark the feeling in favour 
of the Tories, and of the Church which was supposed to 
be in danger from the Whigs. Anne's prime minister, 



xxxnii.] ASCENDANCY OF THE TORIES. 269 

as we should now call him, the Earl of Godolphin^ 
was indeed a Tory, but he was Marlborough's firm 
friend, and, like him, had found it necessaiy more and 
more to ally himself with the Whigs. By degrees Anne 
became estranged from Marlborough, or rather from 
his wife who was insufferably overbearing ; the people, 
once loud in applause of the great Duke, grew sick 
oi the war, which the Tories asserted was only 
continued in order to fill Marlborough's pockets. The 
Duke's love of money, and the substantial rewards the 
war brought him in the way of pay and places gave 
some colour to the accusation. There is a story that 
Peterborough was once mistaken by a mob for 
Marlborough, and was about to be roughly handled, 
"Gentlemen," exclaimed the ready-witted Earl, "I 
can convince you by two reasons that I am not the 
Duke. In the first place, I have only five guineas in 
my pocket ; and in the second, they are heartily at 
your service." And he clinched the argument by 
throwing his purse among the mob. "I must every 
summer," Marlborough wrote bitterly to Godolphin, 
"venture my life in a battle, and be found fault with 
in the winter for not bringing home peace, though I 
wisih for it with all my heart and soul." In 1710, not 
long after the trial of Sacheverell, the Queen dismissed 
Godolphin, and a Tory ministry came into office, 
having on their side the Queen's reigning favourite, 
Abigail Nasham, a bedchamber woman who had 
gradually supplanted the haughty Duchess of Marl- 
borough. The new ministers, Robert Harley, who 
was created Earl of Oxford, and Henry St. fohn, 
afterwards Viscount Bolingbroke, set themselves to put 
an end to the war ; and this they brought about in an 
underhand manner, keeping Marlborough and the 
Allies in the dark. At last Marlborough was charged 
by the House of Commons with peculation, and was 
dismissed by the Queen from all his employments, 
A Tory, the Duke of Ormonde, was sent out in his place, 



270 ANNE, [CHAP. 

and was given secret orders not '.o engage in a siege 
or a battle. The Allies, deserted by the British 
Government, finally agreed to the Peace of Utrecht 
in 17 13. The Archduke Charles, whom the Allies 
had wanted to make King of Spain, had lately 
become Emperor, and master of the Austrian do- 
minions, and people in general no more wished to 
join Spain to Austria than to France ; so Philip was 
allowed to keep his kingdom upon promise that the 
crowns of France and Spain should never be united. 
By the Treaty of Utrecht Great Britain gained the 
French colony of Acadia or Nova Scotia, established 
her right to Hudson's Bay and Newfoundland, and 
retained Gibraltar and the islands of Minorca and St. 
Christopher \ while the French King acknowledged 
Anne as Queen of Great Britain, guaranteed the 
succession of the House of Hanover, and engaged 
to make the Pretender withdraw from the French 
dominions. Yet the Jacobites placed great hopes 
in the Secretary of State, Lord Bolingbroke, who 
was beheved to design bringing about the suc- 
cession of the Chevalier de St. George (as the 
Pretender was more courteously called), whom he 
and his friends urged, but in vain, to turn Protes- 
tant. This question of succession was brought more 
strongly before men's eyes by the death of the aged 
Princess Sophia, whereby her son George Louis, Elector 
of Brunswick-LUneburg, became heir to the throne, 
all Anne's children having died young. Germany 
was at this time split into many small states ruled by 
Princes who within their own territories were absolute, 
though they in name acknowledged the Emperor as 
their head. Of these was the Elector of Brunswick- 
Liineburg, the seat of whose court and government 
was Hanover, and who, as his title shows, was one 
of the nine German princes who had the right of 
electing the Emperor. 

5. Death of Anne. — The Queen's death wag 



xxxviii.J DEATH OF ANNE. 271 

hastened by her agitation at a violent dispute in her 
presence between Oxford and Bolingbroke, who from 
friends had become open rivals. Bolingbroke so far 
prevailed that Oxford was dismissed from his office oi 
Lord High Treasurer. Within a week the Queen was 
struck by apoplexy, and died August i, 1714. Before 
her death she defeated the hopes of the Jacobites by 
delivering the Treasurer's staff to the Duke of Shrews- 
bury—the same Shrewsbury who had signed the in- 
vitation to the Prince of Orange — bidding him " use 
it for the good of her people." The Whig Privy 
Councillors flocked to the council-chamber, troops 
were ordered to London and Portsmouth, and every 
precaution was taken to secure the succession of the 
Protestant heir. Whether Bolingbroke really intended 
to bring in the Pretender is doubtful, but if he did, 
the vigorous measures of the Whigs put it out of 
his power. 

6. Queen Anne's Bounty is a still existing 
benefit which was conferred by Anne upon the 
Church by restoring to it, for the increase of the poorei 
livings, the first-fruits and tenths of benefices which 
were paid formerly to the Pope and afterwards to 
Henry VHL and his successors. 

7. The Dissenters. — During the last four years 
of this reign, the Protestant Dissenters had some cause 
to fear for the safety of the religious Hberty they had 
won at the Revolution. In 17 11 an Act was passed 
to prevent what was called " occasional conformity." 
Many Dissenters, it was found, would qualify them- 
selves for holding office or entering corporations,, 
by receiving the Sacrament according to the rites 
of the Church of England, as required by the 
Test and Corporadon Acts. With intent to keep out 
of office all who were not really members of the es- 
tablished Church, the Act of 17 11 forbade any officer, 
civil or military, or any magistrate of a corporation, to 
be present at a conventicle, under pain of fine and 



379 GEORGE L [CHAF. 

loss of office. In 1 7 14 Bolingbroke, to the joy of the 
extreme Tories and the disgust of the Whigs, obtained 
the passing of the Schism Act, which was intended 
to prevent Dissenters from keeping schools or teach- 
ing anything beyond the rudiments of education. 
It so happened that the very day fixed for this Act 
to come into effect was that on which the Queen died, 
and its operation was suspended by the new govern- 
ment. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

GEORGE I. 

George I,; impeachment of Bolingbroke^ Oxford and 
Ormonde; the Riot Act {\)—the Pretender (2)- -the 
South Sea Scheme (3) — death of George (4) — legisla- 
Hon J the Septenttial Act; the Dissenters (5). 

I. House of Hanover or of Brunswick- 
Liineburg. George I., 1714-1727. — George, Elec- 
tor of Brunswick' LUneburg (otherwise of Hanover), 
was proclaimed King of Great Britain and Ireland 
without a single Jacobite stirring a step. But he made 
no great haste to take possession of his kingdom ; 
and, whether through indifference, fear, or natural 
slowness, let six weeks pass before he, in company 
with his only son, landed at Green\\nch. The new 
ruler, though well received, was not a man to excite 
much loyalty. He was fifty-four years of age, small 
of stature, and awkward ; he could speak no English, 
so that he had to be taught by rote a few words wherein 
to address his first Parliament ; he had left his wife 
shut up in a German castle, and his private life was 
not such as to command any respect. As a King, he 
was honest and well-intentioned ; but his excessive 
attachment to his native dominions proved a source 
of embarrassment to his ministers and of discontent 



XXXIX.] THE PRETENDER. 273 

to the nation ; and, except as a symbol of Protestant- 
ism and constitutional government, lie had never any 
attraction for his British subjects. He kept the Pre- 
tender out, and reigned according to law; and that 
was all his most zealous supporters expected of him. 
His first ministry was composed almost wholly of 
Whigs ; and the new Parliament proceeded to im- 
peach Bolingbroke, Oxford, and Ormonde on charges 
of misconduct in the transactions relating to the 
Peace of Utrecht, and of intriguing with the Pre- 
tender. Bolingbroke had taken alarm early, and fled 
to France, whither Ormonde soon followed him. 
Acts of attainder were passed against both of the fugi- 
tives ; Oxford, standing his ground, was sent to the 
Tower, but, within two years, was acquitted and re- 
leased. These proceedings increased the Tory discon- 
'ient, which had already broken out in riots. " High 
Church and Ormoiide for ever!" was the cry of the 
populace in Staffordshire, a county long noted for its 
Toryism. The disturbances became so serious as to 
lead to the passing of the Riot Act, under which an 
unlawful assembly which does not disperse on com- 
mand of a magistrate becomes guilty of felony. 

2. The Pretender. — On the 6th Sept. 1715, 
fohft Erskuie, Earl of Mar, a Scottish nobleman 
whose frequent changes of politics had won him the 
nickname of "Bobbing John," raised in the High- 
lands the standard of the Pretender, for whom the 
Jacobite gentlemen in the south of Scotland and in 
Northumberland and Cumberland also took up arms. 
A similar rising was expected in the West of England, 
but this the government crushed by arresting the in- 
fluential members of the party. The English rebels, 
together with those of the Scots who had joined them, 
being defeated at Preston, surrendered on the 13th 
Nov., and the same day Mar's army was engaged by 
fohn Campbell, Duke of Argyll, at Sheriffmuir in a 
drawn battle. 



274 GEORGE L [chap 

'* There's some say that we wan. 
Some say that they wan, 
Some say that nane wan at a', man," 

runs the Scottish ballad ; but practically the King's 
troops had the victory. Later in the yeai the Pre- 
tender himself appeared in Scotland ; but he found 
his affairs going so badly that he soon slipped away 
with Mar to France, and the insurgents broke up 
Seven noblemen were sentenced to death for this at- 
tempt; of these, three were respited, and two escaped, 
one of them, the Earl of Mthsdaie, by the help of his 
wife, getting out of the Tower in woman's clothes the 
day before that which had been fixed for his execution. 
Thomas Forster of Bamburgh, the leader of the 
English rebels, made his escape from Newgate by 
means of false keys. James Radcliffe^ Earl of Der- 
wentwater^ an English Roman Catholic, and William 
Gordon^ Viscount Keufnure, a Scottish Protestant, 
together with twenty-six other persons, all taken in 
arms, suffered death. This was not the only attempt 
in favour of the Pretender made during this reign. 
George had bought from Denmark and added to 
Hanover the duchies of Bremen and Verden, which 
had been taken from Charles XII.^ King of Sweden. 
Charles, eager to revenge himself upon George, 
planned, in connexion with the Jacobites, an invasion 
of Scotland ; but the conspiracy was discovered and 
crushed early in 1717. A fresh chance was afforded 
the Pretender by a war the next year between Great 
Britain and Spain, arising out of the attempts of the 
Spanish King to possess himself of Sicily, which by 
the Treaty of Utrecht had been taken from him. 
Among the first events of this war was the destruction 
of the Spanish fleet off Cape Passaro by Admiral Sit 
George Byng (afterwards Viscount Torrington). One 
of Byng's officers, Captain Walton, who was sent in 
pursuit of some of the enemy's men-of-war, reported 
his success in this businesslike despatch . — " Sir, wc 



sjcxix,) THE SOUTH SEA SCHEME. 275 

have taken and destroyed all the Spanish ships and 
vessels which were upon the coast, the number as pei 
margin." The margin showed a list of eight men-of- 
war, besides four smaller vessels. In 1719 a Spanish 
force, under the command of the Duke of Ormonde 
and other Jacobite refugees, was sent from Cadiz to 
invade Scotland ; but the greater part of the fleet which 
carried them, being shattered by a storm off Cape 
Finisterre, was constrained to return. About three 
hundred Spaniards succeeded in landing in the Western 
Highlands, where some of the people joined them; 
but being defeated at Glenshiel by the King's troops, 
they surrendered at discretion. Throughout the eight- 
eenth century Great Britain was constantly mixed up 
with Continental negotiations and wars. This came 
partly of having foreign Kings, and partly of the 
policy of the age, which was to secure the peace of 
Europe by the leading states enforcing a sort of 
equality of strength — a '* Balance of Power " — among 
themselves. Territory was taken from one and given 
to another, people were handed from one master to 
another without a thought of their wishes — men, it 
was said, " would cut and pare states and kingdoms 
as though they were so many Dutch cheeses " — treaties 
were made, and wars undertaken to enforce them. 
In short, though peace was to be secured by the 
Balance of Power, it took a great deal of wrangling 
and not a little fighting to preserve the balance. At 
this time France had ceased to stand by the Pretender. 
Louis XIV. being dead, the new French government 
in 1717 entered into alliance with Great Britain. 

3. The South Sea Scheme. — In 1720 England 
went mad over the famous South Sea scheme. The 
South Sea Company had a monopoly of trade to the 
Spanish coasts of America, and, for the purpose 
of reducing the National Debt, engaged with the 
government to buy up certain annuities which had 
been granted in the last two reigns. The annuitants 



27^ GEORGE I. CCHAP. 

were invited to exchange their stock for that of the 
South Sea Company A rage for speculation set in ; 
the loo/. shares of the Company went up to i,ooo/. ; 
then they fell, a panic followed, and thousands of 
families were ruined. The people became furious 
against the directors ; and, though the estates of 
the latter were confiscated by Parliament for the 
benefit of the sufferers, the punishment was exclaimed 
against as too mild. Robert Walpole^ whose financial 
skill was well known, became first minister of the 
Crown ; and by his management the government 
was helped through its difficulties. The state of 
confusion into which the countr>' was thrown, as well 
as the birth of the Pretender's son, Charles Edward 
Stuart, stirred up the Jacobites again to plot an in- 
vasion. Francis Atterbury^ Bishop of Rochester, a lead- 
ing " High Churchman" — that is, one of those who 
wished to see the Church more powerful, and who 
leaned towards the exiled Royal house — being found 
to be concerned in this conspiracy, was, by an Act of 
Pains and Penalties, deprived of his bishopric and 
banished. An Act of Pains and Penalties only differs 
from an Act of Attainder in inflicting some punishment 
less than death. 

4. Death of George. — In the summer of 1727 
the King left England for Hanover, and, being 
struck by apoplexy on his road to Osnabriick, died in 
his carriage in the night of the loth June. By his 
wife, Sophia Dorothea, Princess of Zell, he left one son, 
George Augustus, Prince of Wales, with whom he had 
at one time been notoriously on bad terms. 

5. Legislation. — By a statute, known as the 
Triennial Act, passed under William and Mary, no 
Parliament could last longer than three years. But 
after the rebellion of 17 15, when the government 
was loth to face a general election, this statute was 
repealed by another which lengthened to seven years 
the term for which a Parliament might last This 



XL.] GEORGE II. 277 

Septennial Act is still law. In 17 19 was passed an 
Act for Strengthening the Protestant Interest^ which, by 
repealing the provisions in the Act of 1 7 1 1 against 
** occasional conformity," and the Schism Act, re- 
dressed the recent grievances of the Dissenters. 
In the next reign Acts were from time to time 
passed for indemnifying those who had not duly 
qualified themselves for the offices they held ; and 
at last it became the practice to pass such Acts every 
year; so that, though the Test and Corporation Acts 
were still unrepealed, all offices were practically 
thrown open to Protestant Dissenters. 



CHAPTER XL. 

GEORGE II. 

George II.; administration of Walpole (i)—war with 
Spain; Ansoti's voyage (2) — war of the Austrian 
Succession * battles ofDettingen and Fontenoy (3) — the 
Young Pretender ; battle of Culloden ; e7id of the Stuart 
line {^—war with France ; shooting of Byng; Pitfs 
administratiofi; death of Wolfe; acquisition of Canada; 
battles of Quiberon and Afindeti (5) — India; Clive i 
''the Black Hole'* ; battles of Plassy and Wande- 
wash (6) — death of George (7) — reform of the Kalendar 
{^)—ihe Eddystone Lighthouse (9) — rise of Methodism 
( I &f— literature (11). 

I. George II., 1727-1760. — George II., like his 
father the late King, was German by birth, German in 
feeling and politics, attached to his native dominions, 
and for their sake ever interfering in Continental 
affairs. Like his father also, he was at variance with 
his son, Frederick, Prince of Wales, a weak young man 
who was popular chiefly because the King was un- 
popular. George II. had however this advantage 
over his predecessor, that he could speak English 



178 GEORGE IL [< 

fluently. In character he was methodical, parsi- 
monious, stubborn, and passionate, of an intrepid 
spirit, and fond of war. His private life was not 
creditable, yet he was, after his fashion, sincerely 
attached to his clever wife, Carolitie of Brandenburg- 
Anspach, who had the art of ruling without seeming to 
rule. For the first ten years of his reign he was 
managed by the Queen, and through her by Sir Robert 
Walpole, whose constant poHcy was to keep England 
at peace and himself in power. One of Walpole's 
financial plans however was very near displacing him. 
This was a scheme for extending the Excise duties, 
which were already most unpopular. The Tories and 
the Opposition Whigs — " Patriots,^' as the latter called 
themselves — combining against it, contrived to lash the 
country into such a fur}' that it was well-nigh ready to 
rebel. Walpole therefore, though confident of the 
advantages of the measure, gave it up, saying that he 
would never be the minister to enforce taxes at the 
expense of blood. 

2. W^ar with Spain. — A similar clamour drove 
Walpole into a war with Spain in 1739. The 
public mind was embittered against the Spaniards by 
the means they took to check contraband trade 
with their American colonies, and by their alleged 
cruelties towards English seamen. A merchant captain 
named Robert Jenkins told at the bar of the House 
of Commons how the Spaniards had tortured him and 
torn off his ear ; and the tale, true or false, roused 
the English to fury. When war was declared, the 
populace of London set the church bells ringing. 
" They may ring the bells now," said Walpole, " before 
long they will be wringing their hands." Except in the 
taking of Forfo Bella by Admiral Vernon with six 
ships, the war was not very successful. Commodore 
Anson, who was sent out to harass the coasts of Chili 
and Peru, then Spanish colonies, made a voyage round 
the world, in which he suffered terrible Iiardships, 



XL.] WAR OF THE AUSTRIAN SUCCESSION. 279 

losing numbers of his crews from scurvy, and bringing 
home only his own ship, the Centurion. This expedi- 
tion, though not politically profitable, raised the fame 
of British seamanship. Meanwhile Walpole, whose 
reluctance to enter upon this war had made him 
thoroughly unpopular, resigned all his offices in 1742, 
and thereupon was called to the House of Peers as 
Earl of Orford. His steady friend Queen Caroline 
had died in 1737. 

3. War of the Austrian Succession. — On the 
death of the Emperor Charles VI. in 1740, a general war 
arose about the succession to his hereditary dominions, 
Great Britain giving aid to his daughter J/^nVjr Theresa^ 
while France supported her opponent the Elector oj 
Bavaria. The nation had constantly reason to suspect 
that the interests of King George's German dominions 
were preferred to those of Great Britain, and when 
Hanoverian troops were taken into British pay, the in- 
dignation was great. " It is now too apparent," said 
William Pitt, the boldest speaker among the "Patriots," 
** that this great, this powerful, this formidable King- 
dom is considered only as a province to a despicable 
Electorate, and that these troops are hired only to 
drain this unhappy nation of its money." In the 
summer of 1743 the King joined his army in Germany, 
and took part in a not very brilliant campaign, the 
only achievement being a victory over the French at 
Dettingen, where George fought on foot at the head 
of his right wing. As yet, England and France, 
though they sent auxiliaries to opposite sides, were 
nominally at peace : — " We have the name of war 
with Spain without the thing," wrote Horace Walpole, 
son of Sir Robert, " and war with France without the 
name." War however was formally declared by the 
French in 1744. The battle oi Fontenoy,'m Hainault, 
1745, in which the allied British, Dutch, and Austrians 
were beaten by the French under their great general 
Marshal Saxe, was, as far as :he British and Hanoverian 



28o GEORGE II. [chap 

forces were concerned, a splendid display of fighting 
qualities, though not of generalship. The French 
were strongly posted behind fortified villages and 
other defences, with only a narrow gap near the hamlet 
of Fontenoy. Into this opening a column of British 
and Hanoverian infantry, led by the King's favourite 
son William^ Duke of Cumberland^ penetrated under a 
iieavy cannonade from batteries on either side ; and 
though charged again and again by the French cavalry, 
it broke through the enemy's lines. The day seemed 
about to be won by sheer valour, when the French 
guns were brought up so as to fire down the length 
of the column, and thus forced it to retreat. A general 
peace was made at Aix-la-Chapelle {Aachen) in 1748. 
4. The Young Pretender. — Early in this war 
the French government had secretly invited to France 
Charles Edward Stuart (who was called the Yowtg 
Pretender and the Young Chevalier, to distinguish him 
from his father James, the Old Pretender), and had 
planned an invasion of England in his favour. With 
this intent, an expedition put to sea in 1744, but it was 
scattered by a storm. The next year, 1745,^ Charles, 
tired of waiting for French help, landed with seven 
attendants in the Highlands, and there mustered a 
small force of adherents, which gathered strength as it 
moved on. The royal general, Sir John Cope, let him 
descend unopposed upon Edinburgh, where Charles 
caused his father to be proclaimed as James VIII. 
of Scotland. At Preston- Pajis, between Edinburgh 
and the sea, he encountered Cope, and by the furious 
onset of the Highlanders broke and routed the royal 
army. After receiving some small supplies of money 
and arms from France, Charles crossed the Border, 
and, with four or five thousand men, pushed on for 
London. Giving the slip to an army led by the Duke 
of Cumberland, he advanced, to the great dismay of 
die capital, as far as Dtrby. But here the hearts 
of the rebel officers failed them ; marvellous as their 



XL.] THE YOUNG PRETENDER. 281 

success had been, there was no such rising in theii 
favour as Charles had reckoned upon. Jacobitism 
existed in England merely as a traditional faith, or as 
a method of expressing discontent, not as a belief for 
which men would peril their lives and properties. 
Manchester, the only town that had shown any 
enthusiasm for the Chevalier, gave him less than two 
hundred recruits. Charles, unwillingly yielding to the 
wishes of his officers, retreated to Scotland, where, 
having found reinforcements, he laid siege to Stirling 
Castle, and routed General Hawley in the battle of 
Falkirk. But after the victory numbers of the High- 
landers, according to their wont, went home with their 
plunder; and Charles, with diminished strength, fell 
back northwards before the Duke of Cumberland, by 
whom the Chevalier's disheartened and half-starved 
forces were overthrown on Culloden Moor, April 16, 
1746. The English victory was tarnished by the cold- 
blooded slaughter of wounded men on the battle-field, 
and by the atrocities afterwards committed in the dis- 
affected country — cruelties which gained for the Duke 
of Cumberland the nickname of " The Butcher.'* 
For their share in this insurrection, known in popular 
Scottish phrase, from the year in which it took place, 
as " the Forty-Jive" three Scottish peers, the Earl oj 
Kilmarnock, and Lords Balmerino and Lovat, together 
tvith Charles Radcliffe (brother to the late Earl of 
Dcrwentwater), and a number of other men, nearly 
eighty in all, were put to death. An Act of Grace 
m the next reign restored their forfeited estates to 
their descendants. As for Charles, he wandered 
about the Highlands for five months, hunted from 
place to place by the soldiers, till, after many perils, 
he escaped in a French vessel. His future life was a 
sad one. Driven, in accordance with a stipulation of 
the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, from France, he moved 
about the Continent, forming vain schemes for another 
invasion, and &lling at last into degrading habits of 



982 GEORGE II [CHAP 

drunkenness. After the death of nis father m 1766, 
he made Italy his abode, and died at Rome, Jan. 30, 
1788, leaving no legitimate children. His youngei 
brother Henry Benedict^ who had been created a 
Cardinal, and was thenceforward known as Cardinal 
Yorky took priest's orders in the Church of Rome, 
and died in 1807. With him ended the ill-starred 
line of Stuart. 

' 5 W^ar with France. — Disputes about the 
boundaries of the English and French settlements in 
North America soon plunged the nation again into 
strife. The French encroached upon the English 
colonists ; these resisted; and thus the mother countries 
were ere long engaged in hostilities. The war began 
disastrously, the most humiliating blow being the 
taking of the island of Minorca in 1756 by the 
French. Admiral John Byng (son of Lord Torrington) 
was sent out to relieve the English garrison of Minorca, 
but after a partial and indecisive engagement with the 
French squadron, he sailed back to Gibraltar without 
having effected his purpose. This slackness cost the 
unfortunate admiral his life ; he was tried the next 
year by court-martial, and shot for not having done his 
utmost. In words which have become proverbial, the 
contemporary French writer Voltaire sarcastically 
represented Englishmen as holding that it was well 
" from time to time to put an admiral to death in 
order to encourage the others." The King had pro- 
vided as far as possible for the safety of Hanover by 
entering into an alliance with Frederick the Great ^ King 
of Prussia) and thus Great Britain was drawn into the 
Seren Years' War between that prince and a confed- 
eracy of Continental powers, the chief of whom were 
France, Austria, and Russia. The English were at this 
time in the depths of despondency, regarding them- 
selves as utterly degenerate, and ready to be enslaved. 
On an alarm of a French invasion, Hanoverian and 
Hessian troops were hastily brought over ; and soin« 



ZL,] WILLIAM PITT. 283 

began to murmur that it had fared ill with the Britons 
of old when they called Hengist and Horsa to their 
aid. Even the coolest and shrewdest men in the 
country shared in the general despair. "It is time," 
wrote Horace Walpole, "for England to sHp her 
cables and float away into some unknown ocean." 
" We are no longer a nation," was the expression ot 
the calm and polished Lord Chesterfield. Since 
Walpole, there had been no great minister in power. 
Lorit Carteret, afterwards Earl of Granville^ who 
guided the nation's foreign policy in 1743 and 1744, 
was indeed a man of genius, but he became un- 
popular through supporting the Hanoverian policy of 
the King ; Henry Pelha7n, a disciple of Walpole, was 
just able to keep things quiet ; and on his death in 
1754, the control of affairs passed into the hands of 
his brother the Duke of Newcastle, a man greedy of 
place and power, but singularly incompetent. The 
popular favourite was Pitt, grandson of a former 
governor of Madras. Pitt started in life as a cornet of 
horse, and in 1735 entered Parliament as member for 
OM Sarum. He at once joined the '* Patriots," and 
his first speech cost him his commission in the army, 
for hi those days men who took the King's pay were 
expected not to oppose the government. No more 
eloquent speaker had yet appeared in Parliament, 
and tne effect of his oratory was heightened by his 
tall and commanding figure, his noble features, and 
his fiery glance. In 1756 he was made Secretary of 
State ; but he was too much disHked by the King, 
who had not forgiven his speeches against Hanoverian 
measuies, to be allowed to keep his oflSce long. Pitt 
knew his own powers : — " I am sure," he said, " that 
I can save this country, and that nobody else can." 
In Tune, 1757, the King found that he must again 
accept him as his minister. The Duke of Newcastle 
was re-appointed First Lord of the Treasury, but Pitt, 
as Secretary of State, took the conduct of foreign 



284 GEORGE IT. fcHAi 

affairs. Under his administration the war was carried 
on with new vigour, till at last successes by sea and 
land began to come as fast as misfortunes had before. 
In September, 1759, James Wo//e, a young general 
of Pitt's choosing, scaled with his forces the almost 
inaccessible heights on which ^m^^^^ stands, completely 
defeated the French army, and fell in the moment of 
victory. As he lay dying, he heard an ofl5cer exclaim. 
" They run 1 " ''Who run ? " asked Wolfe, raising 
himself. "The enemy." '* Then God be praised 1 1 
shall die happy." The French general, the Marquess 
of Montcalm, was likewise mortally wounded. "So 
much the better," said he, "I shall not then live to 
see the surrender of Quebec." Five days after the 
battle Quebec capitulated, and within a year the 
whole of the French colony of Canada was in the 
• hands of the British. At sea. Admiral Sir Edward 
Hawke gained off the point of Quiberon, on the coast 
of Britanny, a signal victory over the French (Nov. 20, 
1759. ) The English were superior in force ; but as a 
storm was blowing, and the French lay close in shore, 
among rocks and sandbanks, the perils of the attack 
were great. Hawke singled out the French admiral's 
ship, the Soleil Royal, his pilot in vain warning him of 
the risk of running on a shoal. You have done 
your duty in pointing out the danger, " said Hawke, 
"you now are to obey my command, and lay me 
alongside the Soleil Royal." To keep up the war 
on the ('ontinent, large subsidies were bestowed 
upon Frederick of Prussia ; and a British and Han- 
overian force, under the command of one of his 
generals, Prince Ferdinajid of Brunswick, defeated 
the French in the battle of Minden, Aug. 1, 1759. 
" Indeed," wrote Horace Walpole, " one is forced to 
ask every morning what victory there is, for fear ol 
missing one." 

6. India. — In India an empire was bemg won. 
The chief European powers there were the French and 



XL.] INDIA. 285 

the English East India Companies. Successive Char- 
ters and Acts had raised the English Company almost 
into a sovereign power : it kept a small army, held law- 
courts, and had authority to make peace and war with 
non-Christian princes and people. Still the object it 
pursued was simply the Indian trade, of which con- 
stantly renewed Acts of Parliament gave it a monopoly, 
and it did not at first aspire to empire. The foun- 
dations of its dominion were laid by Robert (afterwards 
Lor(£) Clive, a young officer of the Company, who, 
though without any military training, proved himself a 
great general and statesman. Clive had been an 
idle and unruly lad, whose family had accepted for 
him a writership in the Company's service because 
they despaired of making anything of him a-t home ; 
and it is said that when his father heard of his son's 
great deeds, he exclaimed, " After all, the booby has 
sense ! " The war between France and England in 
1744, which extended to India, was the first occasion 
of Clive's exchanging civil for military service; and 
though the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle caused a lull in 
European strife, the rival trading Companies in the 
East were soon at war again as auxiliaries of contend- 
ing native princes. Dupleix^ the able and ambitious 
governor of the French fort of Pondicherry, had made 
himself the greatest man in India, and the pre-eminence 
there of the French was almost secured, when the 
genius of Clive broke their power. The first exploit 
of the young Englishman was the successful defence 
in 1751 oS. Arcot, the capital of the Carnatic, against a 
native army with French auxiliaries. When the pro- 
visions of Clive's little garrison ran low, his Sepoys 01 
native soldiers came to him with a proposal that all 
the rice should be given to their European comrades, 
who needed more food than Asiatics — the thin gruel, 
they said, which was strained away from the grain, 
would suffice for themselves. In 1756, Suraj-ad- 
dowla, the Nabob or Prince of Bengal, attacked and 



286 GEORGE IL Tchaf 

took the English Company's settlement at Calcutta^ — 
an event memorable for the horrible fate of the Eng- 
lish there captured, who, a hundred and forty-six in 
number, were, in the hottest season, crowded into a 
cell not twenty feet square, known as the ''^ Black 
Hole'' Only twenty-three of the captives survived 
the night. Clive was sent to avenge them, and the 
great victory which he won over Suraj -ad-do wla at 
Plassy, June 23, 1757, made the Company the real 
lords of Bengal. The mastery of the Carnatic was 
gained by Colonel Eyre Coot^s victory over the 
French at Wande^vash, Jan. 22, 1760. The next 
year Pondicherry surrendered to the Enghsh, and 
though it was afterwards given back, the French 
never recovered their power, and their East India 
Company soon came to an end. 

7. Death of George. — In the midst of these 
conquests, George died suddenly at Kensington ot 
heart-disease, Oct. 25, 1760. His eldest son Frederick 
having died in 1751, the King was succeeded by his 
grandson, George William Frederick, Prince of Wales. 
Between the accession of George II. and the with- 
drawal of the country from the Seven Years' War in 
1763, the National Debt was more than doubled. 

8. Reform of the Kalendar. — In 1751 was 
passed the statute for the reform of the kalendar. 
The Julian Kalendar (so called because it owed its 
origin to Julius Caesar) made the year too long at the 
rate of nearly three days in four hundred years. In 
the 1 6th century the error had been corrected under a 
regulation of Pope Gregory XIII,, and the alteration. 
or New Style, had been in course of time accepted by 
most Christian countries. But in the British dominions 
people still went on with the Old Style, until at length 
the day they called theyfr^r/ofthe month was in other 
lands the tivelfth — in short, they were eleven days 
wrong in their reckoning. By the statute of 1751, 
these nominal days were dropped out of the month of 



KL.] THE EDDYSTONE LIGHTHOUSE. 287 

September, 1752, and the New Style was adopted. The 
memory of the ignorant opposition made to this reform 
is preserved in a picture by the contemporary painter 
Hogarth, where a Whig candidate for Parliament is 
represented as flattering the prejudices of the mob by 
having a banner inscribed, " Give us our eleveji days^* 
By the same statute the legal year, instead of beginning, 
as formerly, on the 25th March, is reckoned from the 
jst January. In the present work, the days of the 
month, down to 1751, have been given according to 
the Old Style, but the years have been reckoned as 
beginning on the ist January. 

9. The Eddystone Lighthouse. — Three light- 
houses have been built one after another on the 
Eddystone Rock. The first, a wooden building, was 
swept away in the *' Great Storm" of 1703, a hurricane 
such as had never been known before in England, 
which choked London Bridge with wrecks, blew down 
more than a hundred elm-trees in St. James' Park, 
caused the loss of several men-of war, and otherwise 
wrought great destruction of property and life. With 
the lighthouse perished its architect Winstanley and 
the workmen who were busied in repairing it A 
second lighthouse, also built mainly of timber, was 
destroyed by fire in 1755. ^o John Smeaton^ a great 
engineer, was entrusted the task of replacing it, which 
he did by a fine tower of stone, completed in 1759. 
Unfortunately the rock upon which this last stands has 
lately (1878) been found to be so undermined by the 
action of the sea that it has become necessary to make 
arrangements for rebuilding the lighthouse on a neigh- 
bouring part of the reef 

10. Rise of Methodism. — In this reign began 
the religious movement known as Methodism, of which 
the promoters were two clergymen of the Church of 
England, George IVhitefield and John Wesley. The 
name of Methodists first sprang up at Oxford, wheie 
It was given in scorn to a small association of young 



288 GEORGE II. [chap 

members of the University, who adopted a devout and 
rigid method of life, kept fast days, meditated and 
prayed, and \asited the prisoners and the sick. Of 
this band were John Wesley, his brother Charles, 
afterwards noted as a writer of hymns, and Whitefield, 
who, after he had taken orders, began to preach with 
wonderful effect His earnestness, his eloquence, his 
vehement action, and fine voice, which, it is said, 
could be heard a mile off, gave the first impulse to 
Methodism, which was then simply an awakening of a 
spirit of enthusiastic devotion, and that too among 
classes who had hitherto been neglected. When the 
churches were closed against the new teacher. White- 
field preached in the open air. This he first did to 
the colliers near Bristol, moving them to tears by his 
fervid oratory ; and his example was followed by his 
associate Wesley. Methodism was frowned upon by 
the clergy, and held up to ridicule on the stage ; its 
preachers were pelted and maltreated by the mob ; but 
nevertheless it grew and prospered. The two great 
preachers however ere long diverged from each other 
in opinion : Whitefield, who died early, was the leader 
of the Calvinist section of the Methodists ; Wesley, 
who died in 1791 at the age of eighty-seven, was the 
founder of the sect called after him, Wesleyan. He 
gave his followers a complete and elaborate organiza- 
tion, although it was not his intention to found a 
separate sect, but rather an order or society within the 
Church of England. The Methodists, however, being 
harassed and almost constrained to declare themselves 
Dissenters, gradually formed themselves into a distinct 
body. 

II. Literature under Anne and the Two 
Georges. — The age of Anne was long looked 
upon as the most brilliant period in English literature. 
Among its chief ornaments was the Whig Joseph 
Addison, who wrote both poetry and prose, but was 
far superior in the latter. In his own day his most 



jO-l LITERATURE. 289 

admired work was the tragedy of Cato^ now little 
esteemed ; with modern readers his fame rests on the 
TatUr and Spectator, two periodical papers set on foot 
by his friend Richard Steele, to which Addison was the 
chief and the best contributor. His peculiar charip 
lay in his refined and delicate humour, and he did 
good service to moralitj' by purifying literature from 
the taint of the Restoration, and showing that wit was 
not necessarily allied with vice, nor virtue with dulness. 
Daniei De Foe, a Dissenter, who early in Anne's reign 
had been set in the pillory for writing an ironical 
pamphlet professing to express the views of a bigoted 
churchman, was the author of one of the most re- 
nowned and popular of English fictions, the Life atid 
Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. His skill lay in giving 
such an air of reality to his tales, of which he wrote 
many, that the reader can hardly believe them to be 
merely works of imagination. Similar power was 
possessed by the great satirist Jonathan Swift, who 
went over from the Whig to the Tory party, and 
■>ecame Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin. The best 
:nown of his works is Gulliver's Travels, the hero of 
which describes nations of pygmies, of giants, of 
speaking and reasoning horses, with a simplicity and 
minuteness which make his wildest marvels seem Hke 
truth. Under this form Swift conveyed a stinging 
satire on the court of George I., the politics of 
Europe, the follies of speculative philosophers, 
and the vices of mankind. Another Tory wit, yM« 
Arbuthnot, was the author of the History of John Bull, 
a burlesque account of the negotiations and war of 
the Spanish Succession. From this satire arose 
the now familiar national name of ^^John Bull,*' first 
given to the clothier who represented England in 
Arbuthnot's burlesque. The Dutch nation was figured 
as Nic. Frog the linendraper ; King Charles of Spain 
was Lord Strutt, his French successor was Philip 
Baboon, and the great King Louis himself appeared as 



290 GEORGE II. [chap. 

Lewis Baboon. To the reign of George II. belong the 
famoUvS novels, Pamela, and the Histories of Clarissa 
Harlowe and Sir Charles Grandison, by Samuei 
Richardson^ whose name stands high among English 
authors, though his tales are too long to be popular 
at the present day. Three other noted writers of 
fiction, Henry Fielding, Tobias Smollett, and Laurence 
Sterne, are best remembered by their respective novels 
of Tom J ones ^Roderick Random, and Tristram Shandy. 
Smollett also wrote a History of England, part of 
which is generally appended as a continuation to the 
History of England by the Scottish philosopher David 
Hume, who only carried his work down to the Revolu- 
tion. This work of Hume's became the generally 
received version of English history — a position which 
it hardly deserved, as, though good in style, it is one- 
sided and inaccurate. Matthew Prior, noted as a 
writer of light and sparkling verse, flourished in the 
reigns of William and Anne. Alexander Pope, who 
was bom in 1688 and died in 1744, is one of the 
great poets of England His Rape of the Lock, a 
mock-heroic tale of a fashionable beauty whose long 
ringlet was secretly cut off by one of her admirers, 
and his moral and satirical poems, among them the 
Dunciad, in which he fell savagely upon the inferior 
authors of his day, are his chief works. His trans- 
lation of the Lliad of Homer is a fine poem in itself, 
though he caught little or nothing of the spirit and tone 
of his original. Terseness, point, harmony, and 
satire often becoming ferocious and coarse, are Pope's 
characteristics ; his versification was the admiration 
of his age, for before him no one had written 
heroic couplets with such smoothness. In creed he 
v/as a Roman Catholic, in character violent and spite- 
ful, and in person small and deformed. John Gay 
was the author of the Beggars' Opera, of the Fables, 
and of the popular ballad of Black-Eyed Susan. 
Nicholas Rowe, who died in 17 18, was a play writer of 



XL.] LITERATURE. agt 

note, although one of his best tragedies, the Faif 
Penitent^ was stolen from Massinger, whose works had 
fallen into neglect. Addison, as has been already said, 
wrote poetry, and some of his hymns are to be found 
in most hymn-books. The hymns also of Isaac IVaUs, 
a dissenting minister, are still among the most popular 
compositions of their kind. Watts lived on into the 
reign of George II., though many of his hymns were 
composed before Anne had come to the throne. 
Equally well known are the beautiful Morning and 
Evening Hymns, first published in 1700, of Thomas 
Ken^ the good Bishop of Bath and Wells, who bore 
his part among the Seven Bishops, and who yet re- 
fused, from conscientious scruples, to withdraw his 
allegiance from James. The poems called the Seasons^ 
which have always been popular, though they are 
marred by frequent pompousness and affectation, are 
the work of James Thofnson, a Scot by birth, who 
died in 1748. Thomson, in conjunction with Z^^z/w? 
Mallet^ wrote the masque of Alfred^ which contains 
the fine national ode of Rule, Britannia. This song, 
though commonly attributed to Thomson, is thought 
by some to have been written by Mallet ; the music 
to it was composed by Dr. Arne. Edward Young, 
who flourished under Anne and the first two Georges, 
wrote the Night Thoughts, a series of poems in piooif 
of the immortality of the soul and against unbelief in 
Christianity. William Collins, who died in 1756, was 
in his own time little appreciated, although he was 
one of the best lyric poets of his century. He is 
however surpassed by Thomas Gray, whose famous 
Elegy in a Country Churchyard W2is published in 1749 
A scholar and student, devoting himself chiefly to 
reading, Gray wrote little, but with great care. 
Among his best pieces is the noble ode of the Bard^ 
which, being founded upon the tale of the massacre of 
the Welsh bards, unluckily branded Edward I. with 
the undeserved name of tyrant 



3^ GEORGE IIL [CHAP. 

CHAPTER XLI. 

GEORGE III. 

George III. {i)— Treaty of Paris {2)— John Wilkes (3)— 
publication of the debates (4) — revolt of the North 
A merican Colonies ; foundation of the United States ; 
war with France ; death of Chatham ; war with Spain 
and Holland; the ^^ armed neutrality^ ; invasion oj 
ferseyj Rodnefs victory of the 12th Apiilj siege oj 
Gibraltar (5) — the Lord George Gordon Riots (6) — 
Pitt and Fox ; the Prince of Wales; insanity of the 
King ; Joy at his recovery ; the Regency (7) — War of 
the French Revolution ; Burke and Fox ; Lord Howe*s 
victory of the \st fune ; suspension of cash payments 
by the Bank of England j battle of St. Vincent j Nel- 
son; mutiny of the Channel Fleet ; mutiny at the 
Nore; battle of Camperdown ; death of Burke (8) — 
Napoleon Buonaparte: his expedition to Egypt; 
battle of the Nile; defence of Acre; death of Tippoo 
Sahib; cofifederacy of Russia, Denmark, and Sweden ; 
battle of Copenhagen; battle of Alexandria ; Peace of 
Amiens {<^)—war with Buonaparte ; detention of Eng- 
lish travellers; Buonaparte seizes Hanover; threatens 
to invade Great Britain; overthrows the Austrians ; 
battle of Trafalgar; death of Nelson; death of 
Pitt; Berlin Decree ; bombardment of Copenhagen 
{10)— Arthur Wellesley ; battle of Assye ; Penin- 
sular War: battle of Vimeiro ; death of Sir John 
Moore; battles of Talavera, Salamanca, Vitoria, 
and Toulouse; fall of Buonaparte (11) — return of 
Buonaparte to Frajtce; battle of Waterloo; surrender 
of Buonaparte {12)— war with the United States ; 
bombardment of A Igiers ( 1 3) — National Debt ; general 
distress ; the Luddites ; death of George IH. ; Prin- 
cess Charlotte {\/^— Royal Marriage Act {1$)— inde- 
pendence of the Irish Parliament ; Irish Rebellion oJ 
1798 ; Union of Great Britain and Ireland (16) — 
Indian affairs ; Ceylon ; discoveries and improvements 
(17) — Howard; abolition of the slave- trade ; Romilly 
\\i)— literature at the end of \Zth century {i^)— early 
19/A century literature {20)— painting (21). 



KLU] TREATY OF PARIS. 993 

1. George III., 1760-1820. — George ///, eldest 
son of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and Princess 
Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, though not highly educated, 
was pleasing in manners and appearance, well con- 
ducted, and well-intentioned. The nation, hitherto 
always grumbling at its foreign kings who were 
never so happy as when out of their kingdom, hailed 
with delight the accession of a born Englishman ; and 
the Tories, who, ever since the coming in of the House 
of Hanover, had been in the position, unnatural to 
them, of the party opposed to the court, transferred 
to their new ruler the loyalty formerly bestowed on 
the House of Stuart. About a year after his accession 
the King married Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg- 
Strelitz. 

2. Treaty of Paris. — The man who had most 
influence with the young King was John Stuart^ Earl 
of Bute, who early in the reign was made one of the 
Secretaries of State, and who became perhaps the 
most unpopular minister of modern times. He was 
not only a court favourite, but also a Toiy and a 
Scot : and at that time, when the rebellion of 1745 was 
still remembered, there was much ill-feeling between 
the Scots and English. The King and Bute meant to 
put an end to the war ; and in this they had with them 
many of the ministers, who were beginning to count 
the cost of Pitt's glories. In 1761 France and Spain 
entered into a secret alliance, with intent to make war 
together upon Great Britain. This treaty becoming 
known to Pitt, he urged his colleagues at once to 
declare war against Spain ; and on their opposition, 
the " Great Commoner^' as he was called, resigned 
office. The war with Spain nevertheless broke out ; 
but peace was made as soon as possible with both 
countries by the Treaty of Paris ^ 1763, under which 
Great Britain kept Canada and all the French pos- 
sessions (except New Orleans) east of the Mississipi, 
and some West Indian islands which had been taken 



394 GEORGE III. [chaf. 

from France, regained Minorca, and obtained Florida 
from Spain. 

3. John Wilkes. — With the peace began a time 
of fierce factions and unpopular ministers. King 
George, who at his accession was two and twenty 
years of age, had schemes for managing everything 
himself, and had made up his mind that he would not, 
as the two Georges before him had done, put himself 
into the power of the Whig party. But his plans did 
not work well, and in the early part of his reign nothing 
went on smoothly. Lord Bute became so unpopular 
that he durst not appear in the streets without a hired 
gang of prize-fighters to protect him, and not long 
after the peace he gave up office. His successor, 
George Grenvil/e, made his administration odious by 
the illegal arrest in 1763 oi John Wilkes for libelling 
it in a paper called the North Briton. Wilkes, then 
member for Aylesbury, was a man of bad character, 
but witty and agreeable ; and his persecution by the 
ministry made him a popular hero. Some years later 
when the Duke of Grafton was prime minister, Wilkes 
became still more famous as the subject of a struggle 
between the House of Commons and the freeholders 
of Middlesex, who maintained their right to return 
him for their representative, although, having been 
expelled the House for another political libel, he 
was — so the Commons, by a stretch of power, had 
resolved — incapable of being elected into that Par- 
liament. 

4. Publication of the Debates. — In these 
struggles it was not, as of old, the House of Com- 
mons and the people against the King's ministers, but 
the House of Commons itself against the people. 
In 1 77 1 the Commons got into another difficulty by 
attempting to enforce their right of preventing the 
pubhcation of their debates, — a privilege which had 
been a necessary safeguard in bygone times when 
kings and ministers were in the habit of sending the 



KLI.] AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. 295 

leaders of Opposition to the Tower. An attempt to 
arrest, by authority of the House, a citizen of London 
who had printed a report of the debates, brought on 
a dispute with the Lord Mayor Brass Crosby^ who 
maintained that to lay hands on a citizen in the city, 
without the concurrence of one of its magistrates, was 
a violation of the charter of London. The Lord ]\Iayor 
and one of the aldermen were sent to the Tower ; 
but in the end the Commons were wise enough to 
let the matter drop, and the printers of the debates 
were no longer molested. By the publication of the 
debates, the people gained a better understanding of 
pohtics, while the Parliament and the government 
learned to pay more respect to public opinion. 

5. The American W^ar of Independence. — 
The severance of thirteen North- American colonies 
from the mother-country took place in this reign. 
The English government had attempted to tax these 
colonies to defray in part the expenses of protecting 
them; the colonists denied the right of the British Par- 
liament, in which they were unrepresented, to tax them, 
and claimed the right of taxing themselves in their 
own Assemblies. The first measure of this kind was 
the Stamp Ad, requiring all legal documents in the 
colonies to bear stamps — a scheme devised by Gren- 
ville, who was then at the head of the government. 
This act was repealed within a year, as the colonists 
were on the verge of rebellion ; but on the proposal 
of Lord North, who became prime minister in 1770, 
a duty of threepence a pound laid on tea was retained 
simply as an assertion of the right of taxation. 
Upon this there was much disturbance, especially 
at Boston in Massachusetts, where a: last a party of 
the townsmen threw overboard the cargoes of tea 
brought into their harbour. Severe measures being 
taken by way of punishment, the breach widened 
till in 1775 actual war began; and on the 4th July 
in the next year the revolted colonies, under the 



996 GEORGE III. [chap. 

name of the United States of America^ declared them- 
selves independent of Great Britain. The war was 
conducted on the British side with no great vigour or 
skill ; and after the surrender in 1777 of the English 
General Burgoyne and his army, which had got sur- 
rounded at Saratoga by the American forces, France 
formed an alliance with the new States. Thence- 
forth Great Britain was at war with France as well as 
with the colonies. Pitt, now Earl of Chatham, had, 
with others of the ablest men in Parhament, protested 
against the taxation of the colonies, but he could not 
bear the idea of seeing the British Empire dismem- 
bered by France. Though very ill, he insisted on 
going down to the House of Lords to speak against 
yielding, as many of the Opposition had advised, at 
this crisis. Leaning on crutches, pale, worn, to all 
appearance a dying man, he faltered out his broken 
sentences — " shreds of unconnected eloquence " : 
— " Shall a people," he exclaimed, " that seventeen 
years ago was the terror of the world, now stoop so 
low as to tell its ancient inveterate enemy : * Take 

all we have ; only give us peace ' ? My 

Lords, any state is better than despair. Let us at 
least make one effort, and if we must fall, let us fall 
like men 1 " On again rising to address the Peers, 
he sank down in a fit; and, after lingering a few 
weeks, he died, May 11, 1778. Spain joined France 
in 1779; and within two years Great Britain found 
another foe in Holland. Moreover the Northern 
powers, Russia, Denmark, and Sweden, entered into 
a confederacy, known as the Ari?ied Neutrality, to 
resist the system of maritime law upheld by Great 
Britain. Amongst other maritime rights, the English 
exercised that of seizing an enemy's property even 
when carried in neutral vessels ; and their claim to 
visit and search merchant ships for such property or 
for contraband of war was the cause of much irritation 
on the part of neutrals. The Northern powers now 



M.I.] THE PROTESTANT RIOTS. 297 

contended that free ships make free goods, that is» 
that an enemy's goods cannot be seized in a neutral 
ship. The crowning disaster was the surrender in 
1 78 1 of Earl Cornwallis and his army, which had 
been besieged and surrounded at Yorktoum (in the 
Chesapeake Bay) by the French and American 
forces ; and at last the King unwiUingly consented to 
recognise the United States. Among the memorable 
events of this war are the French invasion in 1781 of 
Jersey, which was repelled by a gallant young officer, 
Major Pierson, who fell in the fight; Admiral Sir 
George Rodney* s victory, April 12, 1782, in the West 
Indies over the French fleet, whose admiral, the Count 
de Grasse, was compelled to surrender his ship ; 
and the famous defence of Gibraltar by General 
Eliott against the forces of France and Spain for three 
years and seven months. Peace was made in 1783, 
and Minorca and Florida were given back to Spain. 
In North America, Canada^ Nova Scotia^ Ne^v Bruns- 
wick^ Neiafoundland, and the Hudso7i's Bay country 
still remained part of the British Empire. Not long 
before the war broke out, the government had concili- 
ated the French Canadians by granting full religious 
freedom to Roman Catholics in Canada, and the 
right of holding property under their own laws — a 
policy which was rewarded by their steadfast loyalty. 
6. The Lord George Gordon Riots. — In 
June, 1780, there were great riots in London; the 
populace being stirred up by the half-crazed Lord 
George Gordon, in defence, as they said, of the Protes- 
tant cause, which was thought to be endangered by 
the repeal of some enactments against Roman Catho- 
lics. The uproar thus had its origin in religious 
intolerance, though a large number of the rioters 
were merely lawless men who were moved by love of 
mischief or greed of plunder to don the blue cockade 
of the " Protestants." For nearly a week the capital 
was in the power of a mob, who burned Newgate, 



tpS GEORGE III. [chap 

letting the prisoners loose, and sacked the houses of 
those against whom they had a grudge, notably that 
of the Lord Chief Justice Mansfield, whose fine 
library they destroyed. A brewer's man, mounted on 
a horse adorned with the chains of Newgate, led the 
rioters to attack the Bank of England, but without 
success. At one time London was blazing in thirteen 
places, but the stillness of the weather saved it from 
another Great Fire. In London, as in other large 
towns, there was then no efficient police. The police 
officers were " thief-takers," whose business was merely 
to catch criminals. For the purpose of keepinjg order, 
there were, besides the parish constables, only the 
"watchmen," who, carrying lanterns and poles, 
patrolled the streets at night, calling out the hour, 
and who were often old men not strong enough to 
protect themselves. Thus there was no efficient pro- 
vision for checking the beginnings of disturbance ; 
and in the riots of 1780 those in authority were 
loth to call in military force. At last however the 
troops were employed, and order was restored, though 
not before more than two hundred of the rioters had 
been shot down in the streets. Twenty one were after- 
wards hanged ; Lord George himself, who, however 
blameable for exciting the people, had had no part 
in the riots, was tried for high treason and acquitted. 

7. Pitt and Fox. — After the American War, 
the leading statesmen of the day were Charhs 
James Fox, and William Fiti, second son of Lord 
Chatham. Fox, who had taken a strong part in 
favour of the Americans, was a man of ability and 
eloquence, generous and a lover of freedom, but a 
gambler, and disliked by the King as the companion 
and supposed misleader of the Prince of Wales, 
George Augustus Frederick, who both in public and 
private life was everything that his father disapproved. 
Pitt, the rival of Fox, and his equal in talents and 
eloquence, became prime rainistei in 1783, when only 



)ai. PITT AND FOX. 299 

in liis twenty-fifth year, and his power surpassed even 
that of his father. His poUtical opponents scoffed 
at the prime minister's youth : — 

" A sight to make surrounding nations stare^ — 
A kingdom trusted to a schoolboy's care." 

Even in appearance and manners Pitt and Fox formed 
a striking contrast, for Fox was stout, gay, and sociable, 
while Pitt was long and lank, and in public somewhat 
cold and haughty, usually walking up the House of 
Commons without giving so much as a nod or a look 
to any man. In 1788 the King was afflicted with 
insanity, in consequence of which there arose a great 
dispute between Pitt and Fox about the authority 
to be given to the Prince of Wales as Regent, 
Fox asserting the Prince's right to full royal power, 
while Pitt successfully maintained that it was for the 
Parliament to appoint the Regent, and that they might 
restrict his power as they thought fit. But before 
the Bill conferring the Regency upon the Prince 
was passed the King recovered, to the great joy of 
the nation ; for though his obstinacy of disposition 
had at one time made him unpopular, of late his 
kindly manners and simple life had endeared him to 
his subjects, while the Prince was thought so ill of 
that his rule was dreaded. The King however had 
fresh attacks, and at last, about 181 1, he permanently 
lost his reason, from which time his reign may be 
. accounted as at an end in all but name, the Prince of 
Wales ruling in his stead as Regent. 

8. War of the French Revolution. — In 1789 
there began in France the political troubles which led 
to the Great Retwlution^ in the course of which the 
King, Louis XVI. ^ was put to death, and a Republic 
was set up. Embittered by long-standing misrule 
and suffering, excited by dreams of regenerating the 
world and by the sudden acquisition of power, the 
revolutionary party swept away the cM institutions of 



3O0 GEORGE IIL [chap 

their country, and while ruthlessly shedding the blood 
of those who did not side with them, they proclaimed 
the rise of a new order of things in which all men 
should be brethren, free and equal. In England 
there was at first sympathy with a nation struggling 
for liberty; but with the majority of Englishmen this 
feeling soon gave place to that of horror. Fox was 
throughout enthusiastic for the French, while his 
hitherto staunch friend Edmimd Burke took the other 
side. Burke's famous essay entitled Reflections on thi 
Resolution in France^ which was published in 1790 
did much to awaken fear and hatred of the new politi- 
cal principles. Long as he and Fox had been friends, 
their difference of opinion on the French Revolution 
made an irreparable breach between them. " Our 
friendship is at an end," Burke exclaimed in the 
House of Commons, and the warm-hearted Fox could 
scarcely reply for tears. Pitt wished to leave France 
to arrange its own affairs ; but as the Republicans 
plainly showed their intention of spreading their doc- 
trines and form of government by force of arms, and 
their violence and crimes increased the strength of 
the feeling against them among the upper and middle 
classes, it became difficult to maintain peace. The 
French armies defeated the Austrians in the Nether- 
lands, annexed Savoy and Nice, and threatened 
Holland. Early in 1793 ^^ beheading of King 
Louis, which excited great horror in England, widened 
the breach ; and not long afterwards, the French 
government took the final step by declaring war 
against England, Holland, and Spain. Admiral 
Earl Howe on the ist June, 1794, gained a hard- won 
victory over the French fleet in the Channel ; and the 
English felt justly proud of the humanity their men had 
shown in saving the lives of drowning enemies, whose 
government had only five days before forbidden the 
giving of quarter to any Englishman or Hanoverian — 
an ordei which it is only fair to say was not carried 



>cu.] WAR OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 301 

out But the land operations were for the most 
part signal failures ; an English expeditionary force 
was driven by the French out of Holland, Spain 
went over to France, and Prussia and other allies fell 
off; upon which Great Britain sought, but ineffectually, 
for peace. There was much discontent at home ; 
food being dear, cries were raised for " Bread " and 
"Peace," while the government, frightened lest the 
revolutionary spirit should spread, became harsh and 
even arbitrary. The cost of the war was heavy, and 
the Bank of England was, in February, 1797, so 
drained that it stopped cash payments. Ireland was 
ready to revolt ; Spain and Holland were both in 
alliance with France, and if their fleets could join 
in the Channel, they would together form a force 
stronger than any which England had at hand to 
oppose it. Two great victories however averted 
this last danger. On the 14th February, Sir John 
/e7'vis^ with only fifteen sail of the line against the 
enemy's twenty-five, defeated the Spanish fleet off 
Capi St. Vincent. In this action two ships were 
boarded and taken by Commodore Horatio Nelson^ 
the greatest of the many great sailors of Bntain. He 
was the son of a clergyman in Norfolk, and though 
a delicate boy — too weak, his sailor uncle thought, "to 
rough it out at sea " — ^had early given tokens of the 
daring spirit which he displayed throughout his career, 
and which he inspired in those who served under 
him. " My seamen," he once said of his crew, " are 
now what British seamen ought to be — almost in- 
vincible. They really mind shot no more than peas." 
He was a master of the art of naval warfare, which 
was waged under conditions far different from those 
of our own day; for the heaviest guns of Nelson's 
time were but feeble compared to those of recent 
invention, and steamships and ironclads were un- 
snown. " Heart of oak are our ships, heart of oak 
are our men," ran the popular song, and the navj 



3oa GEORGE III. [cil .• 

was proudly spoken of as " the wooden walls of Old 
England." But the trust of the nation in its navy 
received an alarming shock from the sudden mutiny 
of the Channel Fleet when ordered to sea. The 
sailors were not without grievances to excuse them. 
The Crown had a right to impress seamen, and the 
press-gangs, hated and feared in every port, carried 
men off by force to the King's ships, where the pay 
was small and the food bad. The sailors demanded 
an increase of wages to be secured to them by statute, 
and a pardon ; and, after some delay. Lord Howe 
was sent to meet the mutineer leaders with the re- 
quired Act and the King's pardon in his hand. On 
the 17 th May the fleet put to sea. A second and 
more violent mutiny broke out in the ships at the 
Nore — "the Floating Republic," they styled them- 
selves — but, as this did not extend to the other fleets, 
obedience was re-established in a few wesks, and the 
ringleaders were tried and hanged. The sailors 
made atonement by fighting valiantly in the battle 
won October 11 by Admiral Adam Duncan^ off 
Camperdown^ over AdmJral Van Winter and the fleet 
of the Dutch, who at that time formed a Republic 
dependent on France, and whose vessels were in- 
tended to aid in an invasion of Ireland. The Dutch 
maintained the contest with a courage worthy of their 
old renown. Van Winter only striking his flag after 
losing all his masts and half his crew. Eight ships ol 
the line and two of fifty-six guns were brought as 
prizes to England. This eventful year is also marked 
by the death of Burke, who to the last protested 
against the peace which Pitt had again vainly striven 
to bring about. 

9. Napoleon Buonaparte. — For the next eight- 
een years the history of Europe is the history of 
Napoleon Buonaparte, who by hi? surpassing military 
genius raised himself to be despotic ruler of France, 
and annexed or brought into vassalage all the western 



»CLI-] NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 303 

part of the Continent of Europe. This great soldier 
was of Italian race, and a native of the island of 
Corsica. Having entered the French artillery, he had 
risen rapidly under the warlike rule of the Republic, 
and made himself a name by his conquests in Italy. 
In 1798 he undertook an expedition to Egypt, his 
head full of magnificent schemes of founding an 
Eastern Empire. On his passage he evaded Nelson 
and the English fleet, who were looking out for him. 
Nelson however found the French fleet lying in the 
Bay of Aboukir, and there defeated it in the great 
Battle of the Nile, August i. Being wounded in the 
head, the English admiral was carried below, when 
the surgeon quitted a patient who was then under his 
hands to attend to him. " No ! " said Nelson, *• I will 
take my turn with my brave fellows.'' Brueys, the 
French admiral, died on the deck of his own ship, 
the L Orient, which, after his fall, having taken fire, 
blew up. There was a brief lull in the fight — the 
firing was discontinued on both sides, and the first 
sound that broke the silence was the splash of the 
L'Orient's masts and yards, falling from the vast height 
to which they had been hurled. The battle went on 
till daybreak, only four French vessels escaping. For 
this victory Nelson was created a peer by the title 
^i Baron Nelson of the Nile. From Egypt Buonaparte 
pushed into Syria, where Acre was gallantly held 
against him by the Turkish garrison, aided by an 
English officer. Sir Sidney Smith, who was then in 
the Gulf of Acre with a few vessels. About the same 
time Ttppoo Sahib, Sultan of Mysore in India, an old 
foe of England, to whom the French gave hopes 
of aid, was vanquished and slain at the storming of 
Seringapatam by General David Baird. Foiled in 
the East, Buonaparte went home to make himself, 
under the title of ^' First Consul^^ the master of 
France. In December, -800, Russia, Denmark, and 
Sweden again formed a confederacy to resist the 



304 GEORGE ID. chap 

English system of maritime law. The death of the 
Czar or Emperor of Russia soon put an end to the 
war which arose out of these disputes, and du/ing 
which Nelson took or destroyed the Danish fleet in 
the battle of Copenhagen or of the Baltic, April 2, 

1 80 1. The Danish fleet and batteries made such a 
stout resistance that Sir Hyde Parker, Nelson's 
superior officer, gave the signal for retreat. Nelson, 
venturing to disobey, put his glass to his bUnd eye, 
— for he had lost an eye in action — and saying that 
he ''really did not see the signal," bade that 
his own signal for close action should be "nailed 
to the mast." In Egypt the battle of Alexandria, 
March 21, 1801, was gained hy Sir Ralph Abercromby 

•over the army which Buonaparte had left there, and 
before the end of the year the French evacuated 
that country. Wearied of war, Great Britain, which 
had once haughtily declined negotiation with Buona- 
parte, was now glad to conclude a peace at Amiens, 

1802. although nearly all her conquests were thereby 
surrendered. 

10. War with Buonaparte. — The peace was 
short-lived, a dispute about Malta, which had come 
into the possession of the EngUsh, and which they 
would not give up, leading to the renewal of war in 

1803. Though Malta was the immediate subject of 
dispute, there were deeper causes of strife. Great 
Britain was alarmed and angered by the way in which 
Buonaparte went on enlarging his dominions and 
planning fresh conquests ; and Buonaparte was en- 
raged at any attempts to thwart him. The freedom 
too with which the EngHsh press, and more especially 
a French journal published in London, criticized his 
proceedings was a cause of irritation to his despotic 
mind. In retaliation for the seizure of two French 
vessels without, as he complained, a formal declaration 
of wai — although war had been practically announced 
by the withdrawal of the ambassadors od both sides 



jnx] WAR WITH BUONAPARTE. 305 

— Buonaparte arrested all the English in France, 10,000 
peaceful travellers, and detained them for the nexl 
eleven years. He seized Hanover, and collected troops 
and transports at Boulogne for the invasion of Grent 
Britain. So confident was he, that he prepared a medal 
which was to commemorate the conquest he had 
not yet made. It bore the words, " Descent upon 
England," and "Struck at London in 1804." Great 
Britain made ready for the expected struggle, nearly 
400,000 volunteers being quickly enrolled ; and month 
after month it waited for the long-deferred invasion. 
At last, in August 1805, Buonaparte, who had now 
taken the title of Emperor of the French, was ready 
to cross the Channel " If we are masters of the 
passage for twelve hours," he wrote, " England has 
lived." His scheme was that his fleet, on which he 
counted for the protection of his transports, should 
sail to the West Indies, so as to lure the British 
admirals away in pursuit, and then, having joined 
with that of Spain, should suddenly return and enter 
the Channel. But some of his ships were blockaded 
in the port of Brest by Admiral Cornwallis; and though 
a combined French and Spanish fleet, closely chased 
by Nelson, did sail to the West Indies, on its return it 
was encountered and defeated off" Cape Finisterre 
by Sir Robert Calder. After this action it made 
for Spain, and was now lying in Cadiz, not daring 
to attempt to force the entrance of the Channel. 
Buonaparte's scheme had broken down, but he took 
care that people should have no time to scoff at its 
failure. Pitt, who had resigned office in 1801, but 
had since returned to power, had just formed a league 
or " coalition" with Austria and Russia. Against the 
Austrians accordingly Napoleon turned his arms, 
and swooping upon them before the Russians could 
join, he forced one of their armies to surrender (Oct. 
20, 1805). Lord Nelson meanwhile, as soon as the 
French and Spanish fleets came out of Cadiz, attacked 



306 GEORGE III. [chap 

them off Cape Trafalgar^ Oct. 21, 1805, hoisting, 
before the action began, the famous signal, ^^England 
expects that every man will do his duty!' Proudly 
careless of his life, he stood on the deck of his 
ship, the Victory^ with the stars of the different 
orders with which he had been invested glittering 
on his breast, thus making himself a mark for the 
enemy's riflemen. In the heat of the action he 
received his death-wound from a musket-ball, and 
though the victory was so complete as to put an end 
to all plans of invasion, the joy of Britain was clouded 
by sorrow for the loss of her hero. Another great man 
died early the next year — Pitt, whose heart had been 
broken by Buonaparte's victory over the Austrians and 
Russians near Austerlitz (Dec. 2, 1805), and the con- 
sequent ruin of all the hopes built upon the Coalition. 
It is told how Pitt, noticing, soon after these dis- 
asters, a map of Europe hanging upon the wall, said 
bitterly, " Roll up that map ; it will not be wanted 
these ten years." The French conqueror now set him- 
self to ruin British trade by a gigantic stretch of the 
law of blockade. A belligerent power has the right 
to blockade its enemy's ports, that is, to hinder all entry 
or exit, even neutral vessels being liable to seizure 
if they try to break through. But it is required that 
there shall be stationed at the place a sufficient force 
to make the blockade a reality. Great Britain had some 
time previously declared the coast from Brest to the 
Elbe in a state of blockade. In revenge, Buonaparte 
on the 2 1 St Nov., 1806, issued the Berlin Decree (so 
named because it was sent forth from the conquered 
city of Berlin), which declared a blockade of the British 
Isles, forbade all correspondence or trade with them, 
and subjected all British goods to confiscation. Thi? 
Decree he enforced, not only upon his own dominions, 
but upon all the Continental states that his power 
could reach. He did not really blockade a single 
harbour in the British Isles, for he had no force at 



KLI.] THE PENINSULAR WAR. 307 

sea ; what he attempted was in fact to blockade the 
Continent against British merchandize. Retaliatory 
orders were issued by the English government, and 
further orders by Buonaparte, till between them the 
whole foreign trade of neutrals was interdicted- 
Strengthened by a close alliance with the Emperor 
Alexander of Russia, Buonaparte hoped to constrain 
the whole Continent to make common cause against 
Great Britain. The British ministers having good 
reason to believe that the Danish fleet was about to be 
placed at Buonaparte's disposal for an invasion of 
England, despatched an expedition to demand from the 
Danes the surrender of their fleet ; and on refusal, 
Copenhagen was bombarded till the vessels were given 
up (Sept. T807). But though successful in balking 
Buonaparte's maritime plans. Great Britain was power- 
less to check him on land, where he added to his 
dominions and carved out subject kingdoms for his 
brothers and kinsmen at his pleasure. 

1 1. The Peninsular W^ar. — At last Britain found 
a soldier who could match Napoleon — Sir Arthur 
Wellesley^ who had distinguished himself in India, 
where he had carried on a successful war with the 
Mahratta chiefs, over whom he gained the hard-fought 
battle of Assye^ September 23, 1803. In 1808, Buona- 
parte having seized the kingdoms of Portugal and 
Spain, the Spanish patriots called upon England for 
help, which was promptly given ; and thus began the 
Peninsular War, an obstinate struggle of six years, in 
which Wellesley, though not as yet opposed to Buona- 
parte himself, triumphed over many of his generals. 
Landing in Portugal, Wellesley on the 21st August 
defeated the French gentxdX /unot at Vimeiro, but his 
superior officer — for Wellesley had not the chief com- 
mand — would not follow up the victory, and the enemy 
was allowed to evacuate Portugal under an arrange- 
ment known as the Convention of Cintra, This roused 
much wrath at home, where it was thought that Junot 



3o8 GEORGE III. [chap. 

had been let off too easily. Sir John Moore was then 
placed in command, and late in October he began his 
march into Spain. But the Spanish insurgents being 
defeated, and the French armies gathering round the 
English force, Moore had to retreat, in the depth of win- 
ter, through mountain passes, to the coast Exhausted 
as it was, his army, having reached Coruiia, repulsed tlie 
pursuing French, and was thus enabled to embark 
in safety, though with the loss of its leader, who, 
mortally wounded, yet lived long enough to know 
that his enemy was worsted (January i6, 1809). The 
sound of the distant cannon was still heard as, in the 
darkness of night, Moore was laid in a hastily dug 
grave on the ramparts of Coruiia. In spite of this 
disaster, the government kept up the contest. The 
small force remaining in Portugal was strengthened, 
and Wellesley was now given the chief command. 
Driving the French from Portugal, he entered Spain, 
and on the 28th July defeated Marshal Victor in the 
battle of Talavera, an achievement for which he was 
raised to the peerage as Viscount Wellingtofi. But the 
campaign as a whole failed, chiefly through the mis- 
management of the Spanish generals ; and Wellington 
had to fall back to the Portuguese frontier. He had 
many difficulties in carrying on the war ; for, while the 
French generals took by force everything they needed, 
the British generals, alHes of Spain, had no such 
resource, and were hard put to it for provisions. His 
perseverance however triumphed over every obstacle. 
To protect the peninsula of Lisbon, he constructed 
over the mountainous country between Torres Vedras 
and the Tagus strong lines of defence, which effec- 
tually stayed the progress of the French Marshal Mas- 
sena. Portugal was successfully defended, and aftei 
a time, Wellington was again able to carry on offen- 
sive wai in Spain. Among the celebrated actions 
of the war are the storming of Ciudad Rodrigo and 
Badajoz in 181 2, and of San Sebastian in 181 3; the 



XLi.] RETURN OF BUONAPARTE. 309 

victory of Salamanca^ July 22, 181 2, and that of VUoria^ 
June 21, 1813. Step by step the French, under the 
command of Marshal Soult, were driven across the 
Pyrenees into their own country, where Soult still 
maintained the struggle. The last battle was fought 
near Toulouse^ April 10, 18 14, when Buonaparte had 
ceased to be the master of France. His efforts to put 
a stop to trade with Great Britain having embroiled 
him with Russia, he had in 181 2 invaded that country 
with a mighty host, and, being vanquished more by 
the winter's cold than by the sword, had brought 
but a miserable remnant back. Germany, long 
crushed under his feet, had then begun to rise up. 
"A year ago," said Buonaparte in 18 13, " all Europe 
was marching with us ; now all Europe is marching 
against us." Soon after the British, Spanish, and Portu- 
guese had made their way into France through the 
Pyrenees, the allied Russians, Prussians, and Aus- 
trians invaded it from the east; and, ten days 
before the battle of Toulouse, the Emperor of Russia 
and the King of Prussia had entered Paris. Buonaparte 
abdicated, and was allowed to hold the sovereignty of 
the little isle of Elba ; while the brother of the executed 
King Louis was raised to the French throne as Louis 
XVIII. 

12. Battle of Waterloo. — Not a year had passed 
when Buonaparte returned to France, where he was 
again received as ruler. His old soldiers rallied round 
him ; while the Allied Powers, whose representatives 
were then sitting at Vienna to settle the affairs of 
Europe, declared him an outlaw, and made ready for 
war. Great Britain granting large subsidies to her allies, 
whose finances were so exhausted that without such 
assistance they would have been unable to move. 
The English commander-in-chief, now Duke of 
Wellington, and the Prussian general Blikher gathered 
their forces together in the Netherlands. Buona- 
parte, designing to interpose between, the Brilisli 



3IO GEORGE III. [chap 

and Prussian armies, and to overthrow ihem sepa 
rately, crossed the frontier to attack them on theii 
own ground. After severe engagements between the 
English and French at Qiiatre Bras, and the French 
and Prussians at Ligny, June i6, 1815, Welling- 
ton and Buonaparte joined battle near Waterloo, 
June 18. The day was stubbornly contested, the 
British standing with the utmost firmness for more 
than five hours, until the Prussians, as they had 
promised, came up to their support. The Imperial 
Guard, the flower of Buonaparte's army, then advancing 
to the charge against the British, was driven back ; 
upon this, Buonaparte, seeing that all was lost, fled, 
and the victory was complete. The British and 
Prussians entered Paris ; while Buonaparte, finding 
it impossible to carry out his design of escaping to the 
United States, surrendered himself on board the 
British man-of-war Bellerophon, and was sent by the 
Allied Sovereigns captive to the island of St. Helena, a 
British possession, where he ended his days. May 5, 
182 1. By the Treaty of Paris, Nov. 20, 18 15, made 
between the Allies and the government of Louis 
XVIII., the territory of France was reduced nearly to 
its limits in 1790, all Buonaparte's conquests and 
most of those of the Revolutionary government being 
taken away. The conquests which were kept by Great 
Britain at the end of these wars were the Cape of Good 
Hope, which had been taken from the Dutch, the 
Dutch possessions in Ceylon^ as well as Berbice and 
other Dutch settlements in Guiana ; the islands of 
Mauritius (also called the Isle of France), and of the 
Seychelles, and some other islands in the Indian Ocean 
taken from the French ; some West Indian islands, 
taken from the French or the Spaniards ; and in 
Europe, the islands of Malta and Heligoland. Malta, 
which had belonged to the miUtary brotherhood 
of the Knights of St. John, had in 1798 been 
acquired by France, but had been taken by the 



XLi.] WAR WITH THE UNITED STATES. 311 

British forces in 1800 ; Heligoland had been a Danish 
possession. 

13. War with the United States. Bombard- 
ment of Algiers. — In 18 12 the United States of 
America, being irritated at the damage to their trade 
arising out of the Orders issued in retaliation for the 
Berlin Decree, and disputing the claim to impress 
British subjects found on board American vessels, 
declared war against Great Britain. This contest, in 
which the United States attempted, though without 
success, to conquer Canada, was brought to an end 
early in 18 15. At sea the English at first were 
worsted in a succession of combats between single 
vessels. Waging war in every quarter of the globe 
at once, they could not man their vessels with picked 
crews like those of the Americans, who had only one 
contest on their hands ; moreover the American 
frigates, as a class, were larger and carried heavier guns 
than the frigates of the British navy, and in gunnery 
their men were more carefully trained. The English 
feft defeat on their favourite element as a sore disgrace, 
and the relief was great when Captain Broke of the 
British frigate Shannon challenged the United States 
frigate Chesapeake to an encounter off Boston, and, 
the vessels being of equal strength, came off conqueror 
(June I, 18 13). The last mihtary operation of this 
reign was the English and Dutch bombardment in 
18 16 of Algiers, whose Dey or prince was thereby 
compelled to set free nearly two thousand Christian 
slaves. 

14. Home Affairs. — The National Debt had been 
more than trebled by the war ; and as years of strife 
had impoverished all Europe, there was now scarcely 
any foreign market for British manufactures, and little 
demand for labour at home. With the idea of encou- 
raging and protecting home agriculture, a corn law was 
passed in 18 15, practically prohibiting the importation 
of foreign wheat until British wheat should have risen 



.^12 GEORGE III. [CHAP 

to Sos. the quarter. The restricting the supply ol 
foreign corn was no new thing ; but this Act carried 
it further than it had ever gone of late years. Dis- 
turbances and riots, and the formation of political 
societies which advocated sweeping reforms and some- 
times plotted revolution, led to the adoption of 
stringent provisions for repressing sedition. In 1816 
came a season of scarcity, and with wheat rising to 
famine prices, and a surplus of labour, the distress 
and discontent of the people were great. The " Lud- 
dites" who were bands of workmen leagued to break 
the stocking and lace frames which interfered with 
their employment, had first arisen in 1812, and having 
never been thoroughly put down, now revived with 
new violence. In 18 19 a large open-air meeting in 
St. Peter's Field, Manchester, held with a view to 
obtaining a reform of Parliament, was put down by 
military force with bloodshed. This affray has since 
been commonly known as the " Manchester Massacre" 
The blind and aged George III. died, January 29, 
1820, at Windsor Castle, leaving six sons and five 
daughters. His eldest son, the Prince Regent, who 
had ruled for the last nine years, had only one child, 
Princess Charlotte Augusta, who in 18 16 married 
Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg^ and died the next 
year. 

15. The Royal Marriage Act. — In 1772 was 
passed the Royal Marriage Act. by which the descen- 
dants of George II. (other than the issue of princesses 
married into foreign families) are incapacitated from 
marrying under the age of twenty-five without the con- 
sent of the sovereign. After that age, marriage may 
be contracted upon due notice, unless both Houses of 
Parliament signify their disapprobation. The King's 
anger against his brothers, William Henry, Duke oj 
Gloucester, and Henry Frederick, Duke of Cumberland, 
who had both made marriages which displeased him, 
led to this measure. 



jcll] IRISH AFFAIRS. 313 

16. Irish Affairs. — In 1782 /r^/^w^ obtained the 
independence of its Parliament, which nad formerly 
been subordinate to that of England, and though still 
subject to the King, thus ceased to be dependent upon 
Great Britain. Henry Grattan, a barrister and a mem- 
ber of the Irish House of Commons, made himself 
famous by the eloquence which he displayed in 
advocating the legislative independence of his native 
country. During the War of the French Revolution, 
the United Irishmen, an association which had origin- 
ally been formed with a view to obtaining a reform of 
the Irish legislature, entered into treasonable corre- 
spondence with France, from which more than one 
expedition was sent to their aid. Of these the most 
formidable, under General Hoche, was scattered by a 
tempest in 1796 ; another in 1798 made its way into 
Longford, where it was constrained to surrender, while 
the United Irishmen, who rose in rebellion, and were 
routed at Vinegar Hill in Wexford, were put down with 
cruel severities. Of the chiefs of the conspiracy, 
Lord Edward Fitzgerald was seized before the out- 
break, and died of wounds received while defending 
himself from arrest ; Wolfe Tone^ who was captured 
on board of one of the vessels of a French squadron, 
being condemned to the gallows, killed himself in 
prison. After the insurrection had been quelled, 
Ireland was, on the ist January, 1801, united to Great 
Britain, and thenceforth sent her representatives to the 
British Parliament. The cross of the patron saint of 
Ireland, St. Patrick, was at the same time added to 
those of St. George and St. Andrew on the national flag. 
It was in this year, 1801, that the title of " King of 
France" in the style of the Crown was at last dropped. 

17. Indian Affairs. Discoveries and Im- 
provements. — During the long reign of George III. 
there were many wars in India ; Hyder AH, Rajah of 
Mysore, his son and successor Tippoo, and the Mahratta 
chiefs Scindia and Holkar, being among our most 



3X4 GEORGE III [chap 

formidable enemies. Warren Hastings, who in 1774 
became the first Governor-General of India, ranks as 
one of the greatest of English statesmen who have borne 
rule in the East ; and to his abilities it was owing that 
at the close of the American War of Independence, 
Great Britain, whilst losing elsewhere, had increased 
her power in India. Hastings was in 1787 impeached 
by the Commons on charges of injustice, oppression, 
and extortion ; but after a trial by the House of Lords, 
which dragged on for seven years, he was acquitted. 
Lord Cornwallis, who became Governor-General in 
1786, waged a successful war with Tippoo Sahib ; and 
the British dominion was still further strengthened and 
extended under the governorship of the Marquess 
Wellesley, brother of the Duke of Wellington, and 
that of the Marquess of Hastings. The whole of 
Ceylon was also in 18 15 brought under British rule. 
New openings for colonization were found by Captain 
lames Cook, a Yorkshireman, who, beginning his sea 
life as apprentice in a collier, at the breaking out of 
war between France and England in 1755 entered 
the King's service. In 1 768, being placed in command 
of the Efideavour, which was fitted out for the South 
Seas for the purpose of making astronomical observa- 
tions, he started on the first of his famous voyages of 
discovery. In the course of these he explored the 
Society Islands so named by him in honour of the 
Royal Society, at whose instance he had been sent* 
out; he sailed round New Zealand, which had been 
unvisited by Europeans since its discovery by the 
Dutchman Abel Tasman in 1642 ; and he surveyed 
the eastern coast of New Hollafid or Australia, 
naming that part New South Wales, from its like- 
ness to the coast of South Wales at home. The 
name of Endeavour Bay in New South Wales 
preserves the memory of Cook's vessel. Cook also 
discovered and named New Caledonia^ an island 
of which the French government was allowed to 



XLi.] DISCOVERIES AND IMPROVEMENTS. 315 

take possession *n 1853 for the purposes of a penal 
settlement. On his third voyage, in 1779, when the 
great navigator was at the Sandwich Islands, a group 
which he had discovered and named after the Earl of 
Sandwich who was then at the head of the Admiralty, 
he was slain in a sudden fray with the natives. 
Among his other merits, Cook was distinguished by 
the justice and fairness of his dealings with the tribes 
he visited, and by his care and success in preserving 
his crews from that scourge of seamen, the scurvy. 
Some years after his death, New South Wales was 
colonized as a place of transportation for criminals. 
Another penal settlement was made about 1804 in 
Van Diemen's Land, which had been discovered and 
named by Tasman. In later days, when Van Diemen's 
Land had become the seat of a thriving free settle- 
ment, its name, which was disliked on account of its 
association with convicts, was changed to that of 
Tasmania. New Zealand also began to be colonized 
by English settlers from New South Wales in the early 
part of the nineteenth century. Not less important 
were the triumphs of science and enterprise at home. 
Dr. Edivardjenner, whose name is ever to be remem- 
bered with gratitude, was the inventor of vaccination 
as a preventive of small-pox, his first experiment 
being made in 1796. Great advances were made in 
astronomy and chemistry, and vast improvements were 
effected in the arts of industry, which have raised 
Britain to her present position as a manufacturing 
country. Navigable canals had begun to be con- 
structed. Early in the reign of George III. James 
Brindley made the famous canal from Worsley (o 
Manchester, a work of which the engineering difh- 
culties were thought so great that Brindley and his 
employer Fra7icis Egerton, Duke of Bridgewatej-, vere 
looked on as madmen for engaging in it. The 
Duke was the owner of rich coal-mines at Worsley, 
about seven miles from Manchester, but the coal had 



3i6 GEORGE in. [chap. 

hitherto lain useless from the difficulty and expense of 
land carriage. Brindley, being entrusted with the task 
of cutting a canal from Worsley, determined to 
do without locks, and to make it of uniform level 
throughout. At one point he proposed to carry ii 
over the Irwell by an aqueduct of thirty-nine feet 
above the surface of the stream. This was so 
bold a design that another engineer was called in to 
give his opinion. The new-comer shook his head : 
" he had often," he said, " heard of castles in the air, 
but never before was shown where any of them were 
to be erected." But the Duke stood by his own 
engineer, and the aqueduct was successfully con- 
structed. Smeaton, already famous as the builder of 
the Eddystone lighthouse, laid out in 1767 the hne of 
the great canal connecting the Forth and Clyde. 
The manufacture oi pottery was raised to a flourishing 
condition by Josiah Wedgwood^ a Staffordshire man ; 
and that of iron, by Dr. Roebuck's process of smelting 
with pit-coal instead of charcoal. Machinery was 
applied to spin and weave cotton, the spinning frame 
being first made in 1768 by Richard Arkwright, origi- 
nally a barber of Bolton. Arkwright, who was after- 
wards knighted, made a large fortune by his works. 
But the crowning achievement of the age was that of 
the Scotsman James Watt, who, though not actually 
the inventor of the steam-engine, so improved it as to 
place a new power in the hands of mankind. Steam- 
boats came into use about 181 2. The first steam- 
boat in actual working use in Great Britain was the 
" Cornet^' which was built after the design of Henry 
Bell of Glasgow, and plied between that town and 
Helensburgh at the rate of about five miles an hour. 
Iron began to be used instead of wood as the 
material of ships, the first iron steam- vessel that went 
to sea being built about 1820. Gas was turned to 
account as a means of giving light. Pall Mall being 
first lighted with it in 1807. 



xu.] REFORMS. 317 

18. Reforms. — Among the notable men of this 
reign must be named some who spent their lives in 
endeavouring to remedy the evils and abuses around 
them. John Howard is famous for his labours in the 
reform of prisons. Becoming in 1773 High Sheriff of 
Bedfordshire, he was shocked by the condition in 
which he found the gaols, and he thereupon devoted 
himself to the task of examining into their state 
throughout the country, and of calling the attention of 
Parliament to them. Such inquiries were undertaken 
at no small hazard ; for the prisons of the time, 
without order or discipline, with their inmates left at 
the mercy of hard and extortionate gaolers, were dens 
so foul and infected that to enter them was risk of 
life. Thomas Clarkson and William Wilberforce are 
honoured as the leaders of the party which did away 
with the slave-trade. Although it had been decided in 
1772 by the Court of King's Bench at AVestminstei 
that slavery could not legally exist in England, hei 
colonies, like those of other nations, continued to 
employ the labour of negro-slaves, who were imported 
in vast numbers from Africa. Clarkson was the first 
who effectually stirred np public feehng against this 
cruel traffic, which the society of Quakers had already 
denounced. He and his associates were seconded in 
Parliament by Wilberforce, the son of a Hull 
merchant, and, at last, after agitating the matter for 
nearly twenty years, they succeeded in 1807 in ob- 
taining the passing of an Act abolishing the slave- 
trade. Fox, although he did not live to see the 
measure carried through Parliament, did much towards 
bringing it about. Sir Samuel Romilly is distinguished 
for his efforts to mitigate the severity of the criminal 
law ; and by his exertions, he succeeded in doing away 
with the punishment of death in the case of many 
small offences against property. 

19. Literature.— End of Eighteenth Century. 
— In the early jears of George III., Dr, Satnud 



3t8 GEORGE IIL [chap 

/ohnson, the compiler of the well-known English 
Dictionary, bore sway as a kind of literary sovereign, 
although as an author he belongs equally to the 
preceding reign. It was in 1737 that he first came to 
London with his pupil Garrick, afterwards famous as 
an actor, to seek his fortune by writing, which was 
then but an ill-paid trade. After many years of hard- 
ship, his fame became established. George IIL, soon 
after his accession, granted him a pension, and 
Johnson, reverenced by the new generation, who 
relied implicitly on his judgment and admired his 
sonorous, balanced, and Latinized style, spent the 
rest of his Hfe in comfort. He died in 1784. His 
biography, written by his devoted worshipper fames 
Boswell, who noted his every word and action, 
has done almost as much to perpetuate his fame as 
any of his own works in verse or prose. Horace 
Walpole^ youngest son of Sir Robert, and author of the 
wild romance of the Castle of Otranto, showed his 
power chiefly in his letters, which extend over the 
period from 1735 ^o 1797, and by their liveliness and 
ease, their fund of gossip and anecdote, have won him 
the praise of being "the best letter-writer in the English 
language." Oliver Goldsmith, an idle, good-natured, 
and improvident man, ever in difficulties, was the 
author of a novel, The Vicar of Wakefield, a poem, The 
Deserted Village^ and a comedy, She Stoops to Conquer, 
which have all obtained lasting fame. In 1769, during 
the struggle between the House of Commons and 
Wilkes, began to appear the famous Letters of Junius, 
published in the Public Advertiser, a London news- 
paper. These were a series of powerful and savage 
attacks, directed against most men in high place, but 
more especially against the then prime minister, the 
Duke of Grafton, and his friends. '' Junius "—for so 
the letters were signed — concealed himself so well that 
it has never been known for ce'tain who he was. 
Adam Smith, sl Scotsman, born at K-irkcaldy in 1733, 



jui] LITERATURE. 319 

and for many years Professor of Moral Philosophy in 
the University of Glasgow, published in 1776 his 
great work on political economy, entitled Att Inquiry 
into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. 
He was the founder of the modem school of political 
economy. Another Scotsman, William Robertson, was 
the author of a History of Scotland, comprising the 
reigns of Mary and of James VI. till his accession to 
the crown of England, which was published in 1759. 
Some years afterwards followed his History of the 
Reign of the Emperor Charles F., which is con- 
sidered his best work. Edward Gibbon, the historian 
of the Decline and Fall of the Romun Empire, is 
distinguished by the wide range of his learning, 
by his coldly majestic style, and by his power of 
grave and quiet sarcasm, which, being himself an 
unbeliever in Christianity, he particularly delighted 
in directing against the early professors of the 
faith. The Decline and Fall is probably the greatest 
historical work in the English language. The drama 
was enlivened by the brilliant comedies of the Rivali 
and the School for Scandal, which were written by 
Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Having made a name 
as a dramatist and a wit, Sheridan turned his mind 
to politics, and, attaching himself to Fox, Burke, and 
the other Opposition leaders, he became one of the 
most noted speakers in the House of Commons. 
Frances Burney, the daughter of an eminent musical 
composer, rose to fame at the age of twenty-five by the 
publication in 1778 of the History of Evelina, which 
was read and praised even by men who did not often 
condescend to turn over a novel. Queen Charlotte 
testified her admiration of the novelist by making her 
one of the keepers of her robes ; but, though the 
most loyal of subjects. Miss Burney found the life of 
a waiting-woman not at all to her taste. She poured 
out the story of her woes in the Diary which she 
kept during her five years' service in the dull, formal 



320 GEORGE III. fcHAP 

court of George III. Ajin RaddiffevnoX.^ the M'ysteriCi 
of Udolpho, which long thrilled novel-readers with if? 
romantic horrors, and A^-liich may be accounted the 
best speciruen of a style of fiction which was in its 
time much admired. Thomas Day, a benevolent and 
eccentric man, is best remembered by his History oj 
Sandford and Merion, one of the most popular of 
children's books. In this may be traced the influence 
of the French school of philosophers who paved the 
way for the Revolution — their revolt against the 
artificial manners of fashionable society, their doctrine 
of the equality of mankind, and their tendencv to 
ascribe all the follies and sins of men to bad edu- 
cation. In poetry there is for some time little to 
note except the verse of Goldsmith ; but in the latter 
part of the century there arose a poet who had 
the vigour to discard the monotonous and mannered 
style which had been in vogue ever since the days 
of Pope. This was William Cowper^ whose poems 
are marked by deep religious feeling, by a genuine 
love of nature, and by a sarcastic power hardly to be 
looked for in one who was morbidly sensitive, and 
at times afflicted with melancholy madness. He 
died in 1800. Robert Burns, an Ayrshire farmer, who 
wrote in his native dialect of English, is especially 
the poet of the Scottish people ; and his war-song, 
"Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled," an imaginary 
address of Robert Bruce to his army before the battle 
of Bannockburn, has become the national poem of 
his country. 

20. Early Nineteenth Century Literature. 
— The works of Cowper and Bums were the first 
symptoms of that awakening of the spirit of poetry 
which took place about the end of the eighteenth 
century. The times were such as make pr^ets ; for 
the great upheaving of the French Revolution, which 
brought forth as it were a new world, and the long 
struggle with Napoleon inspired new ideas of liberty 



XLi.] LITERATURE. 321 

and fresh ardour of patriotism. The opinions of 
the Jacobins^ as the extreme revolutionists in France 
were called, took strong hold of two young poets, 
Robert Southey ?iXiA his great companion Samuel Taylor 
Coleridge^ who however both sobered down in after- 
life. Southey, whose fierce republicanism had once 
afforded subjects for the witty parodies of Hookham 
Frere and George Canning in the Anti-Jacobin^ turned 
into a somewhat bigoted Tory. Of his many poems, 
perhaps the best is the metrical romance of Thalaba 
the Destroyer^ published in i8c?. In prose he was 
the author of a Life of Nelson^ which has been said to 
be " beyond all doubt, the most perfect and the most 
delightful of his works." Coleridge excelled in throw- 
ing a weird and mysterious air over his poems, of which 
the most characteristic are the Ancient Mariner and 
the fragment called Christabel. Both Southey and 
Coleridge belonged to what was called the Lake School 
of poetry, of which William Wordsworth was the head. 
The circumstance of these three friends living in 
the neighbourhood of the lakes of Cumberland and 
Westmoreland gave rise to the name, which was 
pecuharly applicable to Wordsworth from the minute- 
ness and truth with which he described the scenery and 
people of his native North. As his theory and style 
of poetry altogether differed from those of any writer 
before him, and were not of a kind to be popular, 
Wordsworth had to encounter much derision before 
his position as a man of genius was established. 
Thomas Campbell^ whose works breathe a spirit of 
patriotism and freedom, is chiefly remembered by his 
shorter poems, such as the spirited songs of Ye 
Mariners of England^ written in expectation of war 
with Denmark, and the Battle of the Baltic^ com- 
memorating Nelson's attack on Copenhagen in 1801. 
Sir Walter Scott was long the most popular poet of 
his day, and when he lost that position, he became 
the most popular novelist. In 1805 he surprised the 



34a GEORGE HI. [chap. 

world by the wild warlike vigour of the Lay of the 
Last Minstrel^ a tale of warfare on the Scottish Border 
in the sixteenth century. This was followed up by 
other metrical romances of Scottish and English 
chivalry. More perhaps was done by Scott than by 
any one else to call forth that appreciation of the 
literature, art, feelings, and manners of the Teutonic 
and Celtic races which was gradually displacing the 
exclusive admiration of Greek and Roman antiquity. 
He turned to prose when he saw that his poetical 
renown was waning before that of a younger rival. 
This was George Gordon, Lord Byron, whose first 
cantos of Childe Hanld's Pilgrimage^ published in 
t8t2, had such immediate success that, as he himself 
said, he woke one morning and found himself famous. 
Byron led a wiM and unhappy life, and, splendid 
as his poems are, they are marred by moral faults 
which increased with his years. In 1824, when 
only thirty-six years of age, he died at Mesolongi, 
whither he had gone to fight for the Greek patriots 
against the Turks. Two years earlier, his friend 
Percy Bysshe Shelley, whose religious and social 
opinions had made him so unpopular that he left 
England, had been drowned in the Mediterranean. 
Shelley has been called " the Poet of Poets," because 
his writings, though not suited to ordinary minds, can 
be appreciated by those who are themselves poets. 
In prose the most notable works of the time were 
Scott's Waverley Novels, by which he won a still higher 
place than that to which he had attained as a poet. 
The first of the set, Waverley, a tale of the adventures 
of an English gentleman who joins the Young Cheva- 
lier's army, was published anonymously in 1814, and 
was quickly followed by a host of other novels and 
romances. Scott's aim was, as he has told us, to 
do for his own country what Maria Edgeworih had 
already done for Ireland — "something which might 
introduce her natives to those of the sister kingdom 



XLL] LITERATURE AND PAINTING. 323 

in a more favourable light than they had beei placed 
hitherto." Maria Edgeworth, whose Irish characters 
thus roused the emulation of Scott, was a novelist of 
repute, but to the present generation she is best 
known by her books for children. Another novelist, 
of whom, different as her line was from his own, 
Scott spoke with generous admiration, was Jam 
Austtn, a Hampshire clergyman's daughter, who 
represented the quiet uneventful life of the English 
lesser gentry with exquisite truth and humour. 

21. Painting. — Nothing has hitherto been said 
about painting, because England was behindhand in 
the art, and it was not until the time of the Georges 
that a native school was formed. The most famous 
names in the early history of painting in England are 
those of foreigners. Hans Holbein^ whose flattering 
portrait of Anne of Cleves had a share in leading 
Henry VIII. to send for her as his bride, was a 
German. Sir Anthony Vandyck, the great artist who 
has preserved for us the features of Charles I. and his 
nobles, was a native of Antwerp. The Vandeveldes, 
father and son, both noted sea-painters, belonged to 
Holland, from which country the elder one was in 
vited by Charles II. Sir Peter Lely and Sir Godfrey 
Kneller, the first of whom portrayed the beauties of 
the court of Charles II., the other, those of the court 
of William III., were Germans. There were indeed 
some good native painters, such as William Dobson, 
who has been called the English Vandyck ; Robert 
Walker^ who painted Cromwell and most of his 
officers ; and Samuel Cooper^ a fine miniature-painter 
of the days of the Commonwealth and Charles 
II. But after these, portraiture, and indeed all 
branches of painting, went down, until the rise of 
William Hogarth, who flourished under George II. 
He was the son-in-law of Sir James Thornhill^ 
a painter much in request during the reigns of 
Anne and George I. for the decoration of palaces 



324 CtEORGE III. [chap 

and public buildings, whose best works adorn the 
dome of St. Paul's and the hall of Greenwich 
Hospital. Hogarth struck out a style of his own, 
painting satirical scenes, sometimes humorous, some- 
times gloomy and tragic ; and his pictures, drawn 
from the life of all classes, are records of the costume 
and the manners of his age. In 17 63, four years after 
Hogarth's death, was founded the Royal Academy, of 
which Sir Joshua Reynolds, the great portrait-painter 
of England, was the first president, Reynolds is 
accounted the founder of the English School of paint- 
ing. Other noted artists of the time are Richara 
Wilson, a painter of landscape, and Thomas Gains- 
borough, of landscape and portraits. Among the many 
pictures of Benjamin West, who was born in Pennsyl- 
vania, then a British colony, and who became the 
favourite artist of George TIL, one of the most cele- 
brated is the Death of General Wolfe, In this, instead 
of representing the figures in ancient Greek or Roman 
costume, as was then the fashion with painters, West 
had the good sense to depict them in dresses such as 
they actually wore. The successor, though not the 
equal, of Reynolds in portraiture was Sir Thomas Law- 
rence, who from the early part of the nineteenth century 
until his death in 1830, possessed the public favour. 
Sir David Wilkie, a Scotsman, drew admirable scenes 
of village and farmhouse life ; and the great landscape 
painter, Joseph Mallard William Turner, was in the 
middle of his career at the end of the reign of 
George III. Turner, though he afterwards gave his 
attention chiefly to oil painting, began as a water- 
colour painter ; in leed the English School of water- 
colour painting owes its origin to him and his friend 
and fellow-student Thomas Girtin, who formed for 
themselves a new method and style in this art. Among 
water-colourists, Samuel Prout, who died in 1852, 
excelled in delineating mediaeval architecture and the 
streets and market-places of foreign towns, while 



XLII-] GEORGE rv. 325 

David Cox is especially famed for stormy landscape 
scenes. Thomas Bewick^ a Northumbrian, is famous 
as the reviver of wood engraving, and his beautiful 
prints of beasts, birds, and rural scenes were designed 
as well as executed by himself. John Flaxman, who 
died in 1826, is considered the greatest of English 
sculptors. 



CHAPTER XLII. 

GEORGE IV. 

George IV. j Cato Street Conspiracy (i) — Queen Caroline 

{2)— foreign affaij-s; battle of Navarino (3) — Free 
trade (4) — " Catholic Emancipation " (5) — death oj 
George IV. ; Metropolitan Police Force ; Burfnese 
War (6). 

1. George IV., 1820-1830. — Within a month after 
the accession of the Prince Regent as George IV.^ dis- 
covery was made of a plot for assassinating the King's 
ministers at a Cabinet dinner. The meeting-place of 
the conspirators was a loft in Cato Street in London, 
and their ringleader was one Arthur Thistlewood^ 
whose object, so he averred, was to revenge the 
" Manchester Massacre." Being convicted of treason, 
Thistlewood and four accomplices were hanged. 

2. Queen Caroline. — In 1795, George, under 
pressure from his father, and tempted by the prospect 
of payment of his debts, had married his cousin, 
Caroline^ Princess of Brwiswick-Wolfefibiittel, an in- 
discreet and coarse-mannered woman, from whom he 
soon separated. Not long after his accession, a Bill 
of Pains and Penalties was brought into Parliament 
by the ministry to degrade and divorce the Queen 
on charges of misconduct. After an examination of 
witnesses before the House of Lords, the bill was 
finally dropped, to the delight of the populace, who 
were all on the Queen's side, believing her to have 



326 GEORGE IV. [chap. 

been wronged and persecrated. But the King was 
still determined to resist her claim to be crowned as 
his consort, and in this he was supported by the Privy 
Council. The Queen, attempting at least to be 
present at her husband's coronation, appeared early 
on the morning of the ceremony before the doors of 
Westminster Abbey, but was everywhere refused 
admission. Not long after this humiliation she fell 
sick, and died August 7, 1821. 

3. Foreign Affairs. — Although in France the old 
line of Kings had been restored, the work of the 
French Revolution was far from being undone. The 
French doctrines of " liberty, equality, and fraternity^' 
had taught oppressed or dissatisfied men of all countries 
to draw together as one party ; and therefore princes 
and all in authority became disposed to make common 
cause against the malcontent. So long as the war 
lasted, Great Britain was of necessity the close friend 
of the old governments of the Continent ; but after the 
peace her foreign policy began to diverge from that 
of her allies, the Emperors of Austria and Russia and 
the King of Prassia. These, having joined together 
in the " Holy Alliance^^ made themselves the oppo- 
nents of revolution, and of reform won by revolution, 
throughout Europe ; while England would not under- 
take to interfere in the internal affairs of other states. 
The " Holy Alliance " was so named because the three 
sovereigns had put forth a declaration that they would 
be guided solely by the precepts of the Christian 
religion ; but among '•^ Liberals^' — as those who sympath- 
ized with insurrection abroad, or wished for changes 
at home, had begun to call themselves — it became a 
byword for a league of tyrants. The alteration in the 
foreign policy of Great Britain was mainly brought about 
by George Cannmg, who in 1822 became Secretary of 
State for Foreign Affairs. When the Spanish colonies 
in South America had separated themselves from Spain, 
Canning prevailed on the British Government to 



xLn.] FREE TRADE. 34^ 

recognise them as independent States — a measure 
which was looked upon as a great step in the direction 
of Liberalism. Later on, Canning became prime 
minister, in which position his last act was to settle a 
treaty between Great Britain, France, and Russia, 
with the view of putting a stop to the cruel warfare 
carried on by the Turks in Greece, which had risen 
against their yoke. The hope that the object of the 
treaty would be attained without fighting was not 
realized, for the Allied fleets and those of the Turks 
and Egyptians came unexpectedly to a battle in the 
port of Navarino (October 20, 1827), where the 
Turkish fleet was in great part destroyed. 

4. Free Trade. — A marked change was also 
coming over commercial policy. The general belief 
had hitherto been that trade ought to be controlled 
and directed by law, so as to force it into those 
channels which were thought most advantageous to 
the nation or to particular classes who were strong 
enough to secure their own interests. Thus the im- 
portation of foreign wrought silks was forbidden, and 
heavy duties were laid on raw and thrown silk, with 
the idea of promoting the silk manufacture at home. 
In the wool-trade there was a constant struggle between 
the sheep-owners, who wished to keep out foreign 
wool and to export their own, and the manufacturers, 
who wanted free import, and prohibition of exports, so 
as to keep the woollen manufacture in their own 
hands. Then there were Navigation Acts, intended 
to promote the employment of British merchant-ships, 
and as much as possible to keep out foreign ships. 
There was however a growing belief in the advantage 
of Free trade — that is, of leaving trade to take its 
natm^l course unchecked, — ^and much was done 
towards establishing such a system by William 
HuskissoTiy who in 1823 became President of the 
Board of Trade. In that year he obtained the 
passing of an Act for enabling the King in Council 



32S GEORGE IV. [chap 

to place the shipping of foreign states on the same 
footing with British shipping, provided that similar 
privileges were given to British ships in the ports 
of such states. He next succeeded in doing away 
with the prohibitions on the importation of silk manu- 
factures, and in reducing the duties on silk. The 
prohibitions on the exportation of wool were also 
discontinued, and the duties on its importation were 
reduced. In 1828, when Huskisson was Secretary of 
State for the Colonies, a corn law was passed, which 
allowed free importation of grain, upon payment of 
duties decreasing as the price rose, and increasing as 
it fell. 

5. " Catholic Emancipation." — In 1828 an Act 
was passed repealing so much of the Corporation and 
Test Acts as required persons taking office to com- 
municate according to the rites of the Church of 
England. This was a concession to the Protestant 
Dissenters, and it was soon followed up by the chief 
measure of this reign — the " Catholic Emancipation 
Act.'' Till the reign of George III., Roman Catholics 
remained subject to penal laws of such Severity thatthe 
great lawyer Blackstone could find no better defence 
for them than that they were seldom put in force. By 
later statutes many of these restrictions and penal- 
ties were removed from those Roman Catholics who 
would take a certain prescribed oath, and at last, in 
181 7, all grades in the army and navy were practically 
opened to them. From both Houses of Parliament, 
and from certain offices, franchises, and civil rights, 
they were still shut out by the oath of supremacy, and 
by the declarations required against transubstantiation, 
the mvocation of saints, and the sacrifice of the mass. 
On the Union with Ireland, Pitt virtually pledged 
himself to remove these disabilities \ but as George 
III. made it a point of conscience to refuse to en- 
tertain such a measure, nothing was done during that 
King's reign. Canning likewise was known 10 be in 



XLH.] CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. 329 

favour of the " emancipation " of the Roman Catho- 
lics ; but their hopes were cast down by his death in 
1827, and early in the following year the Duke of 
Wellington and Mr. (afterwards Sir Robert) Feel, who 
were both opposed to the Roman Catholic claims, 
became the chief advisers of the Crown. In Ireland 
a " Catholic Association " had been formed, which 
busied itself in stirring up public opinion on this subject. 
Its leader was Daniel CConnell, a Roman Catholic 
barrister of great eloquence and influence with his 
countrymen. The power of the Association was shown 
in 1828 by the election of O'Connell to a seat in 
Parliament. The ministry now felt it necessary to 
bring in a bill for admitting Roman Catholics to 
Parhament, to all civil and military offices and places 
of trust or profit under the Crown (except those of 
Regent, Lord Chancellor in Great Britain and Ireland, 
and Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and a few others), 
and to corporate offices, upon their taking an oath to 
support the existing institutions of the State, and not 
to injure those of the Church. The Duke of Welling- 
ton avowed in the House of Lords that he had brought 
forward this measure in order to avert civil war. 
He knew, he said, what civil war was, and he would 
sacrifice anything to avoid even one month of such 
strife in his own country. Bitter were the reproaches 
that the extreme Tories cast upon the Duke and 
his colleague Peel for thus yielding. The Earl oj 
Wi?ichilsea in particular published a letter in which 
he used expressions reflecting so unfavourably upon 
Wellington's honour as a statesman that, according 
to the custom of the time, a duel took place between 
the two. The Duke fired and missed, and the Earl 
discharged his pistol in the air. The Bill was passed 
through Parliament and on the 13th April, 1829, 
received the royal assent. 

6. Death of George IV. — King George IV., who 
passed the latter years of his life in seclusion, died at 



j^ WILLIAM IV. [chap. 

Windsor Castle, June 26, 1830. During his reign the 
laws relating to the trial and punishment of offences 
were consolidated and amended, the penalties being 
generally made less severe. The Metropolitan Police 
Force^ which greatly increased the security of London, 
was established in 1829 by Peel, who was at that '•ime 
Secretary of State for Home Affairs. For about two 
years, from 1824 to 1826, the English in India were 
at war with their neighbours the Burmese, each side 
having gradually extended their possessions till they 
met. The war ended successfully for the British, 
who gained some territory thereby. George IV. was 
succeeded by his brother William Henry^ Duke oj 
Clarence 



CHAPTER XLIII. 

WILLIAM IV. 

William IV. / the Reform Bill ; new party names (i)— 
Abolition 0/ Slavery (2) — death 0/ King Will, am ; 
Hanover separated from Great Britain (3) — amendment 
of the Poor Law j reform of Municipal Corporations j 
East India Company {^^— burning of the Houses oj 
Parliament (5) — railways j Stephenson (6). 

I. William IV., 1830-1837. The Reform 
Bill. — William^ Duke of Clarence, who had passed 
his early life in the navy, came to the throne in 
troublous times. Soon after his accession, revolutions 
in France and the Netherlands disquieted Europe ; 
while at home rick-burning and machine-breaking 
spread alarm through the southern agricultural coun- 
ties, and the great question of Farliameniary Reform 
was pressing for immediate consideration. The system 
of parlia7nentary representation had long stood m 
need of reform. New towns had sprung up, but they 



jn.ni.] PARLIAATENTARY REFORM. 331 

were unrepresented ; ancient but decayed boroughS; 
containing perhaps seven, six, or even one elector, still 
returned members. Such was the borough of Gatton. 
where there were but seven householders to exercise 
the right of voting; and that of Old Sarum, where a 
single elector, the keeper of an alehouse, went through 
the form of choosing two members to represent himself 
in Parliament. The property in such boroughs was, 
in the majority of instances, in the hands of some one 
large owner, by whom the elections were controlled, 
and whose influence and nomination were notoriously 
bought and sold ; electoral rights were various, and 
in many towns a small corporation, open to con- 
trol and corruption, exclusively possessed them. 
Thus at Bath, where the inhabitants were numerous, 
only the mayor, aldermen, and common-councilmen 
had votes ; at Buckingham, only the bailiff and 
twelve burgesses. These and such as these were 
the close boroughs, or as they were more poj^ularly 
termed, the rotten boroughs. One great peer had 
eleven members in the House of Commons — that is 
to say, there were eleven boroughs which sent up as 
their representatives whomsoever he chose to name. 
"What right," asked Sydney Smith, the wit of the 
Liberal party, " has this lord or that marquess to buy 
ten seats in Parliament in the shape of boroughs, and 
then to make laws to govern me?" As early as the 
Civil Wars, the defects of the representative system had 
been perceived by far-sighted men ; and Oliver Crom- 
well's Parliaments had been elected on a reformed 
system, many petty boroughs being disfranchised, and 
representatives being given to Manchester, Leeds, 
and Halifax, which were then growing into importance. 
But after Cromwell's death the old system was silently 
restored. Among the politicians who saw the necessity 
of improving upon this state of things were the two 
Pitts, the younger of whom had three times brought 
forward plans of reform. But it was not until 18 16 that, 



33a WILLIAM IV. [cHAr 

mainly owing to the cheap publications of Williafr. 
Cobbett, Parliamentary Reform became a popular 
cry. Cobbett, whose Twopeiiny Register W3^ read in 
every cottage in the manufacturing districts, was a 
self-taught man, and had been at one time a soldier. 
He was a powerful and violent political v/riter, and, 
even by the admission of an enemy, '-* one of the 
greatest masters of the English language." " Hamp- 
den Clubs" sprang up, in which universal suffrage 
and armual parliaments were advocated. These and 
more violent projects were discussed among the people, 
especially among artisans ; and distress and political 
agitation led to riot and attempts at insurrection ; 
while the " Manchester Massacre " roused wrath even 
among those who were ordinarily disposed to sup- 
port the authorities. On its side the government 
party, scared at the temper of the people, adopted 
harsh and despotic measures for repressing sedition. 
Nevertheless, during the Regency and the reign of 
George IV., the question of Reform had been 
raised at intervals in Parliament, and the public desire 
for it continued to increase. This feeling had been 
strongly displayed at the elections for the new 
Parliament ; and great was the indignation at finding 
from the King's speech and the language held by the 
prime minister, the Duke of Wellington, that no 
Reform was to be looked for from the government. 
Earl Grey had spoken in the House of Lords of the 
necessity for Reform, to which the Duke answered 
that the legislature and the system of representation 
possessed the full confidence of the country, and 
that not only would he not bring forward any 
measure of reform, but "as long as he held any 
station in the government of the country, he should 
always feel it his duty to resist such measures when 
proposed by others." Such was the ferment 
this caused, that the King was advised against 
going in state to dine at the Guildhall, as usual at 



XLiii.l THE REFORM BILL. 333 

the beginning of a reign, and Wellington and Peel 
resigned office in a little more than a week after 
wards, when they were succeeded by a Ministry 
under the leadership of Earl Grey, who announced 
that his objects would be Peace, Retrenchment, and 
Reform. On the ist March, 1831, Loi'd John Russell^ 
(now Earl Russell) ou the part of the new govern- 
ment, brought in a Reform Bill, which was so much 
more sweeping than had been expected that it was 
received by the Opposition with mingled amaze- 
ment and scorn. As a majority of the Commons 
voted for striking out that part of the Reform scheme 
which diminished the number of members of 
Parliament, the ministry prevailed on the King to 
dissolve. So great was the agitation within the walls 
of the House when the King was known to be at 
hand, that the scene reminded men *'of the tumultuary 
dissolutions in the times of the Stuarts." "The most 
exciting moment of my public life," afterwards wrote 
Lord Campbell, then member for Stafford, " was 
when we cheered the guns which announced his 
Majesty's approach." A new House of Commons, 
elected to the cry of " The Billy the whole Bill, ana 
tiothing but the Bill" sent the desired measure up to 
the House of Lords, where it was rejected by a 
majority of forty-one. Incendiary fires, and riots at 
Derby, Nottingham, and Bristol, marked the autumn 
of 1 83 1, whilst public excitement became general and 
intense. A third Reform Bill was brought in by the 
ministry, and passed by the Commons ; but to carry it 
through the Lords would, it was thought, be a hopeless 
undertaking unless some forty new Peers who would 
support the Bill were created. As the King was un 
willing to do this, the ministers resigned ; but in less 
than a fortnight, during which threats of refusing pay- 
ment of taxes were made and the House of Commons 
was petitioned to grant no supplies till the Bill was 
passed. Lord Grey and his friends returned to office 



334 WILLIAM IV. [CHAP. 

New Peers however were not created, as the King, 
using his influence over the hostile noblemen, induced 
them to drop their further opposition ; and the Bill 
became law, June 7, 1832. Reform Bills were also 
passed for Scotland and Ireland. By the English 
Act, fifty-six boroughs were disfranchised, and forty- 
three new ones, together with thirty county constitu- 
encies, were created; a 10/. householder qualification 
was established in boroughs, and the county franchise 
was extended from forty-shilling freeholders to copy- 
holders, leaseholders, and tenant occupiers of premises 
of certain values. The Duke of Wellington, expressing 
the feelings of the Tories, said, " We can only hope 
for the best ; we cannot foresee what will happen ; but 
few people will be sanguine enough to imagine that we 
shall ever again be as prosperous as we have been." 
The Reformed Parliament, the object of great hopes 
and greater fears, met January 29, 1833. Setting 
vigorously to work, it passed several important Acts ; 
without however realizing the forebodings of the anti- 
reform party, who had thought a revolution was at hand. 
It was about the beginning of this reign that the 
Tories took the name of Conservatives^ as denoting 
that they sought to preserve the ancient institutions 
of the country. Their political opponents were 
already known by the name of Liberals. That of 
Radical h2L.d come up about 18 18, being then applied 
to those who desired a radical reform of Parliament. 

2. Abolition of Slavery. — Although the slave- 
trade had been put down wherever British power 
reached, negro-slavery still existed in our Colonies. 
In August, 1833, was passed a measure of which 
Great Britain is justly proud— the Act for the Abolition 
of Slavery, at the cost of twenty millions sterling in 
compensation to the slave-owners. 

3. Death of King William.— The King died 
at Windsor Castle, June 20, 1837. By his wife 
Primesi Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen^ he had two 



xtttt] legislation. 335 

daughters, who both died in infancy. He was suc- 
ceeded on the throne of Great Britaiji and Ireland 
by her present Majesty, Alexandrina Victoria^ the 
only child of his brother Edward, Duke of Kent. The 
succession to the throne of Hanover, which in 18 15 
had been raised to the rank of a Kingdom, had been 
limited to the male Ime, and that country therefore 
passed to Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberlandy fifth 
son of George III. 

4. Legislation. — Among the important Acts of 
this reign are those for the amendment of the poor- 
laws and for the regulation of municipal corporations. 
The system of laws for the relief of the poor, founded 
upon an Act passed in Queen Elizabeth's reign, had 
been so injudiciously worked, and so many abuses 
had crept in, that it did more haim than good. 
A system, in appearance harsher, but in reality more 
beneficial, was now established by the Poor Law 
Amendment Act, passed in 1834. In the next year 
was passed the Municipal Corporation Act for the 
reform of boroughs in England and Wales. In many 
towns the right to the freedom, citizenship, or burgess- 
ship, had come to be restricted to a very small class, 
while the majority of the householders and ratepayers 
had no part whatever in the government of their town. 
The governing body was in many cases self-elected 
and for life ; and' there was great mismanagement 
and waste of the corporate property. By the new 
Act a better system was established for a hundred 
and seventy-eight of the principal boroughs, not 
including London ; all inhabitant householders who 
had lived a certain time in the place, and paid poor 
and borough rates, were to be burgesses; and the 
governing council was to consist of a mayor, aldermen 
and courxillors, these last being elected by the 
burgesses, while the mayor and aldermen were to be 
elected by the council itself. By an Act passed in 
1833 alterations were made in the constitution of 



33« WILLIAM IV. [CHAF 

the East India Company. The government of the 

British territories in India remained in its hands, 
but it ceased to be a trading body. 

5. The Houses of Parliament. — On the i6th 
October, 1834, the Houses of Parliament were acci- 
dently burned down. Westminster Hall, which they 
adjoined, was happily saved from destruction. In 
the next reign the Parliament Houses were replaced b) 
the present building, the work of Sir Charles Barry 

6. Railways. George Stephenson. — The 
autumn of 1830 is memorable for the opening of the 
Liverpool and Manchester Raihvay, on which passenger 
carriages were drawn by locomotive steam-engines. 
Neither the road nor the engines were wholly new 
things ; for as early as the seventeenth century 
wooden tramways had been used in collieries for the 
conveyance of coal to the place of shipment, and in 
the course of the following century iron rails were 
laid down ; while some of the improvers of the steam- 
engine had succeeded in turning it to locomotive 
purposes. But before George Stephcftson, no one 
had made locomotives at once economical and 
efficient. He was a self-taught Northumbrian, who 
from an engine-fireman had risen to be engineer of a 
colliery near Killingworth, and who amongst his other 
inventions devised a safety-lamp for the use of miners, 
upon the same principle as that constructed about the 
same time by the great chemist Sir Hu7nphry Davy. 
In 1822 Stephenson was employed to make the 
Stockton and Darlington line, upon which one of his 
engines drew a load of ninety tons at the rate of 
upwards of eight miles an hour. Still, with all that 
he had done, the advantages of locomotives were 
doubted, so that many would have preferred to use 
horses on the new Liverpool and Manchester line. 
But steam-power carried the day, and Stephenson 
and his son Robert constructed the famous engine 
^^ Rocket*' the first high-speed locomotive of the 



XLIV.I VICTORIA. ^7 

modem type. From that time dates the genern! 
use of railways and railway engines, whose promoters 
had once been jeered at for thinking that a speed of 
twenty miles an hour might possibly be attained with 
safety, and that stage-coaches and post-chaises would 
be superseded. 



CHAPTER XLIV. 

VICTORIA. 

Queen Victoria; the Prince Consort {\) — abandonment oj 
the protective duties on corn j free-trade principles (2) 
— the Chartists (3) — wars in Asia and Africa; wreck 
of the Birkenhead {j^) — the Crimean War; the Volun- 
teers (5) — the hidian Mutiny ; Empress of India <6) — 
Canada; Australasia; South Africa^ dependent 
colonies {7) — legislation; penny postage ; newspapers ; 
fews admitted to the House of Commons ; pai'lia- 
mentary reform; municipal elections; legislation for 
Ireland; education {^)— Arctic voyages ; the Franklin 
expedition; Alert and Discovery expedition; inven- 
tions (9) — literature (10). 

1. Victoria, 1837. — Although called to the throne 
in a time of political restlessness and discontent, 
Queen Victoria^ then only eighteen years of age, was 
received by her subjects with warm loyalty; and 
throughout her reign she has ever been regarded with 
affection and respect in every part of her Empire. 
On the loth February, 1840, her Majesty married her 
cousin, Prince Albert of Saxt-Coburg and Goiha. The 
Prince Consort, whose public and private conduct 
gained him the respect of the whole nation, died 
December 14, 186 1. 

2. The Repeal of the Corn Laws. — The 
chief question of the time was the repeal of the laws 
la)ring heavy duties on the importation of foreign 
corn. Many people upheld these restrictions, on the 



338 VICTORIA. [chap 

ground that home agriculture ought to be encouraged, 
or protected, by keeping up the price of com, and that 
a country ought, as far as might be, to depend upon 
itself for its supply of food. On the other side, those 
who held Free-trade doctrines argued that the effect of 
the Corn Laws, so far as they were operative, was to 
set, for the benefit of the landowners, an artificial limit 
to the wealth and population of the kingdom in general. 
A number of zealous free-traders in 1839 formed 
an association, the Anti-Corn- Law League, which em- 
ployed itself in enlightening, by speech and writing, 
the public mind as to the evil effect of protective laws. 
The League gradually made way in public opinion ; 
but it was some years before its cause triumphed. In 
1842 the leader of the Conservatives, Sir Robert Peel 
then prime minister, proposed and carried a new com 
law repealing that of 1828. A "sliding scale" of 
duties on the importation of foreign com was main- 
tained, but the duties were lowered. The next 
year Canadian com was let in at a reduced fixed 
duty. At last, in 1846, when the failure of the 
potato-crop was threatening a fearful famine in Ireland, 
the League attained its end. Sir Robert Peel bring- 
ing in and carrying, to the dismay of many of his 
party, bills for abolishing, or reducing to a merely 
nominal amount, the duties on foreign corn, cattle, 
and other productions. This repeal of the corn 
duties, though carried in 1846, did not come into 
complete operation till 1849. The honour of the 
measure was attributed by Peel to Richard Cohden, 
the foremost of the free-trade politicians, whose doct- 
rines — that every man and every nation should be 
free to buy in the cheapest and sell in the dearest 
market, without the laws interfering to favour some 
particular class of producers — ^are now recognised and 
acted upon in Great Britain. 

3. The Chartists — Side by side with the Com- 
Law struggle went the Chartist agitation. The 



xLiv.] THE CHARTISTS. 339 

Chartists were for the most part working men, who 
suffered from the distress then generally prevailing, 
and who looked to further reforms in the system of 
parliamentary representation for the means of mending 
their condition. Their name came from their ** Peo- 
ple's Charter'' the document in which they set forth 
their demands — universal suffrage (excluding however 
women), equal electoral districts, vote by ballot, annual 
parliaments, no property qualification for members, 
and their payment for their legislative services. After 
some rioting in 1839, the Chartists remained tolerably 
quiet until 1848, when, excited by the revolutions 
which took place that year in France and other 
parts of the Continent, they determined to make 
show of their strength. Mustering on the loth of 
April on Kennington Common, they designed to 
march through London to the House of Commons, 
carrying a petition embodying their demands, which 
they boasted, though mistakenly, to bear more than 
five million signatures. This was to be presented by 
Feargus G Connor, one of the members for Notting- 
ham. Both the government and the great body of 
the people met the threatening movement with firm- 
ness. The Londoners, to the number of a quarter 
of a million, enrolled themselves as special constables ; 
the Chartists were not allowed to recross the bridges 
in procession, and the whole affair passed off quietly, 
without the troops which the Duke of Wellington had 
posted out of sight, but at hand, having any need to 
show themselves. From that time the Chartists ceased 
to be of any importance as an organized body ; but 
three of the reforms for which they contended 
have since been carried out by the Acts abolishing 
the property qualification, and granting well-nigh 
universal suffrage for men and vote by ballot. 

4. Wars in Asia and Africa. — The wars ot 
this reign hitherto have been waged in distant parts 
of the world. In 1840 England, together with othei 



340 VICTORIA. ^CHAP. 

powers, took the part of the Sultan of Turkey against 
his vassal Mohammed Alt, Pasha of Egypty and Acre 
was bombarded and taken by the fleet under Admiral 
Sir Robert Stopford and Commodore Napier. In 
this action war-steamers were employed for the first 
time. In the same year a war with China arose out 
o'f the attempts of the Chinese Imperial Government 
to put down the contraband trade in opium carried 
on between India and that country. One of the 
results was the cession of the island of Hong-Kong to 
Great Britain. There were fresh quarrels with China 
in 1856, and again in i860, when the allied English 
and French entered Pekin. A war which began in 
1838 in Afghanistan is memorable for the disasters 
which befell the British troops in occupation of 
Cabul. The British-Indian government had taken up 
the cause of the dispossessed sovereign of Cabul, 
the actual ruler being believed to be intriguing with 
Russia against England. At first the war was success- 
ful. The gate of the stronghold of Ghuznee was 
blown open wilh gunpowder, and the fortress stormed 
and taken ; the city of Cabul was entered in triumph ; 
and British troops were left in occupation of the 
country ; but being forced, by a rising of the natives, 
to retreat from Cabul in 1842, they were cut off, almost 
to a man, in the mountain passes. One officer alone, 
wounded and exhausted, reached Jellalabad, v/hich 
was in possession of the English. After these mis- 
fortunes had been retrieved, a war with the Ameers or 
princes of Sind broke out in 1843, of which the 
result was the conquest of their country by Sir Charles 
Napier J a soldier trained in the Peninsular War, who 
further distinguished himself by the success with which, 
as Governor, he ruled the territory he had won. At 
the end of 1845, and again in 1848, there were wars 
with the Sikhs of the Punjaub^ ended by the victory 
of Goojerat^ won by JUyrd Goughy February 21st, 1849, 
and the annexation of the Funjaub to the British 



XLIV.] WARS IN ASIA AND AFRICA, 341 

dominionii. To these was added, in 1852, the pro- 
vince of Pegu^ taken from the Bui man Empire. In 
South Africa there were wars with the Kaffir tribes 
on the frontiers of the Cape Colony^ resulting in the 
annexation by the Colony of the district called British 
Kaffiraria. The most noteworthy incident connected 
with the Kaffir War of 1850 was the wreck of the 
Birkenhead steamship, which, while conveying detach- 
ments from the 12th, 74th, and 91st regiments, strucjc 
at dead of night, February 25, 1852, on a reef of 
sunken rocks on the South African coast, and in less 
than half an hour went down. The men on board 
gave a noble example of discipline and self-sacrificing 
courage. " Every one," wrote one of the survivors, 
" did as he was directed, and there was not a murmur 
nor a cry among them till the vessel made her final 
plunge." The boats were filled with the women 
and children and pushed off; while the soldiers, in 
obedience to their officers, stood calmly on the 
sinking ship, awaiting almost certain death rather 
than endanger the safety of the boats by attempting to 
get into them. Out of more than six hundred 
soldiers and seamen, less than two hundred were 
saved. Among African wars are also to be noted 
the successful Abyssinian Expeditiofi^ sent out from 
India in 1867, under the command of Sir Robert 
Napier (created Baron Napier of Alagdala)^ to rescue 
certain British subjects and other Europeans held 
captive by Theodore, King of Abyssinia; and the 
equally successful Ashantee Expedition of 1873, sent 
out, under the leadership of Sir Garnet Wolseley^ 
to chastise the Ashafitees, a warlike people near the 
Gold Coast, who had harassed tribes under our protec- 
tion, and attacked the British castle of Elmina. 

5. The Crimean War. The Volunteers, — 
In 1854 Great Britain and France, joined later on 
by Victor Emmanuel, King of Sardinia, engaged, 
on behalf of the Turks, in a war with Russia, which 



342 VICTORIA. [CHAP 

was mainly carried on in the Crimea. The chief actions 
were the victories of the Alma, September 20, and 
of I?ikerman, November 5, and the engagement at 
Balaclava, October 25. During the winter the British 
army investing the fortress of Sebastopol, being ill 
supplied with food or shelter, in the bitterest weather, 
underwent grievous suffering and loss. The siege 
lasted 349 days, at the end of which time the place 
was evacuated by the Russians in September, 1855 \ 
and in the course of the next year peace was made. 
Although Great Britain was at this time on friendly 
terms with France, which was then ruled by Louis 
Napoleon, a nephew of the first Buonaparte, some 
years later there was fear of a French invasion, and 
under the influence of this feeling the Volutiteer Force 
was formed in 1859 for the defence of the country. 

6. The Indian Mutiny. — Early in 1857 the 
mutiny of the Sepoys, or native soldiers of the East 
India Company's army, excited by a mistaken idea 
that some interference with their religion was intended, 
came like a thunder-clap upon the English. The 
regiments at Meerut, after killing a number of English 
men and women, marched into Delhi, where like 
slaughter was made among the English residents. 
The mutineers proclaimed the nominal King of Delhi 
as Emperor of Hindustan, he being the representative 
of the line of Mogul Emperors who had borne rule 
in India when first the Company established itself 
there. At Cawnpore the European garrison were 
treacherously slain, after having surrendered on terms 
to the rebel Nana Sahib, who, upon the approach of 
General Henry Havelock's troops, proceeded to murder 
all the English women and children then in his hands. 
After occupying Cawnpore, Havelock, who had 
inflicted many defeats upon the mutineers, succeeded, 
in company with Sir James Outram, in relieving the 
beleaguered garrison of Lucknow. There the two 
generals remained until Sir C^lin Campbell^ afterwards 



XLiv.] THE COLONIES. 343 

Lord Clyde, came to their aid, and for:ing his way in, 
brought ofl' the garrison, together with the sick, the 
women, and children. The mutiny, which had 
threatened the overthrow of the British dominion, 
was put down in the course of the next year, and by 
Act of Parliament, August 2, 1858, the government 
of India was transferred from the Company to the 
Crown. Nearly twenty years later the Queen took 
the title of Empress of India, by which her Majesty 
was proclaimed at Delhi, January i, 1877. 

7. The Colonies. — In 1791, under Pitt's adminis- 
tration, Ca7iada had been divided into two provinces, 
the old French colony east of the Ottawa being called 
Lower Canada, while the English colony to the west 
of that river formed the province of Upper Canada. 
Lower Canada having long been in a state of discon- 
tent, arising partly out of the disagreements between 
the French colonists and the more recent English 
settlers, soon after the Queen's accession the French 
Canadians broke into open revolt. The insurrection 
spread to Upper Canada, where also there was strife 
between the old settlers, mostly descendants of loyal- 
ists who had emigrated from the United States, and 
the new-comers. Peace however was before long 
restored, and in 1840 a new system of government 
was estabhshed, under which the two Canadas were 
united as one Province of Canada. At a later period, 
in 1867, the provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and 
New Brunswick were by statute federally united into 
one Dominion under the name of Canada. The old 
provinces of Upper and Lower Canada were restored 
under the names of Ontario anc* Quebec. A consti- 
tution was given them similar n principle to that 
of Grriat Britain and Ireland, the government being 
carried on in the Queen's name by a Govemor-Geneial 
and t^'O Houses of Parliament. An outlying distinct 
in the region of the prairies was in 1870 formed 
into a new province under the name of Manitoba^ and 



344 VICTORIA- [CHAP 

added to the Dominion of Canada, which has been 
further enlarged by the incorporation in 1871 oi 
British Columbia, and in 1873 of Prince Edward 
Island, The Australian Colonies have during the 
present reign formed for themselves constitutions 
framed on the British model. Victoria y a settle- 
ment founded about 1836, was made into a sepa- 
rate colony in 1850, and named after the Queen. 
Another colony, Queensland, was established in 1859. 
New Zealand also received a representative constitu- 
tion in 1852, and the Fiji Islands were brought under 
British rule in 1874. In South Africa, Natal — so 
named in the fifteenth century by the Portuguese 
navigators who discovered it on the natal day of Christ 
— was declared a British colony in 1843. The Cape 
Colony has received an independent constitution, and 
has been gradually enlarged by the annexation of 
adjoining districts, the latest being the Transvaal 
These three groups of colonies — Canadian, Austral- 
asian, and South African — though they owe allegiance 
to the sovereign of Great Britain, are practically 
almost independent nations. Besides these, there are 
a number of colonies and settlements in West Africa, 
the West Indies, and Asia, which remain under the 
control of the mother-country. Among the acquis- 
itions of this reign may be mentioned the island of 
Labuan, ceded to us in 1846 by the Sultan of Borneo, 
and Aden J an Arabian port of which the East India 
Company had taken possession in 1838, and which, 
since the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, has 
become an important commercial station. 

8. Legislation. — In 1840 the scheme proposed 
by Mr., afterwards Sir Rowland Hill, for the carriage 
of letters throughout the United Kingdom at uni- 
form rates, now well known as the ^^ pen7iy postage,** 
was put in practice. The immediate consequence was 
tlmt the number of letters sent through the post 
was more than doubled. In 1855 the stamp-duty 



xuv.] LEGISLATION. 345 

on newspapers ceased to be compulsory; the effect 
of which was to reduce the price of newspapers, 
and thereby to increase the general understanding 
of and interest in political matters. In 1858 
an Act was passed empowering either House of 
Parliament to modify, in the case of Jews^ the oath 
then required to be taken by members. The House 
of Commons immediately availed itself of the Act, 
and thereby enabled a Jew, who had already been 
elected, to take his seat. In accordance with a pre- 
valent desire for further parliamentary reforms, a new 
Reform Bill was in 1867 brought in and carried by 
the Conservative ministry then in power, of which 
the chiefs were the late Earl of Derby and Mr. Disraeli 
(since created Earl of Beacotisfield). By this, which 
became law August 15, 1867, a vote in parliamentary 
elections was given in boroughs to all men occupying 
houses within the borough and paying rates, and 
also to men occupying lodgings of the yearly value of 
10/., and the county franchise was greatly extended. 
By an Act passed in 1872, votes in parliamentary 
elections are to be given by ballot^ instead of by open 
voting, as theretofore. An Act passed in 1869 
shortened the term of residence required as a qualifi- 
cation for the municipal franchise, and extended to 
v/omen the right to vote in municipal elections. In 
1869 and 1870 great changes were made in Ireland hy 
measures carried by the Liberal ministry under the 
leadership of Mr. Gladstotif. By one Act the Irish 
Church was disestablished ; and by another, outgoing 
lenants became entitled to compensation in respect 
of improvements made by them on their holdings. 
Great efforts have been made to spread education 
among the people. The Elementary Education Acty 
1870, o-rders that "there shall be provided for every 
school district a sufficient amount of accommodation 
in public elementary schools available for all the 
children resident in such district for whose elementary 



346 VICTORIA. [.chap 

education efficient and suitable provision is not other- 
wise made." The school fees for children whose 
parents are unable from poverty to pay the same 
may be remitted. In districts where the public school 
accommodation is insufficient, "school boards" are to 
be elected, whose duty it is to supply the deficiency. 
These boards are invested with great powers, among 
others that of making it compulsory upon parents 
to cause their children between the ages of five and 
thirteen to attend school. 

9. Discoveries and Inventions. — From 1818 
fresh efforts had been made to find a North- West 
passage, and Sir Edward Parry and Sir John 
Frafiklin explored far into the Arctic regions. Frank- 
lin's last expedition was made in 1845, and from this 
neither he nor his companions ever returned. After 
several expeditions under various leaders in search of 
him, in the course of which at least three North-West 
passages have been discovered, Captain (now Sir 
Leopold) M^Clintock, who went out in 1857, found at 
Point Victory a paper which had been left there in 
1848 by the then survivors of the Franklin party, 
recording the death of Sir John in 1847, and the 
subsequent abandonment of their ice-bound vessels. 
In 1875 two vessels, the Alert and the Discovery, 
were sent out by the government on an expedition of 
Arctic exploration, the object being, if possible, to 
reach the North Pole. In this they were not success- 
ful, though the explorers planted the British flag in 
the highest latitude yet reached by man. The various 
branches of science have been cultivated with ardour 
and success during the present period. Early in the 
reign photography and electric telegraphs were brought 
into use j the latter have since been greatly developed, 
and more than one submarine cable has been laid 
down from Ireland to America. The power of artillery 
and fire-arms has been vastly increased, and, as a 
necessary consequence, the "wooden walls of England" 



xLiv.] LITERATURE. 347 

have been replaced by armoured er irondad war- 

steamers. 

lo. Literature. — Among authors (living writers 
not being taken into account), William Makepeaci 
Thackeray^ Charles Dickens, and Lord Lytton arc 
to be noted as novelists. Thackeray excelled in 
satire upon the social meannesses and worldliness 
of well-to-do people. Dickens, who portrayed with 
great humour, sometimes degenerating into carica- 
ture, the ways and manners of a lower grade of 
society, more especially of the Londoners, is per- 
haps the most popular novelist of our day. Lord 
Lytton wrote both tales of contemporary fashionable 
life and romances of bygone ages ; and his story of 
Harold is at once true in its main lines to fact, and 
a fine imaginary picture of the King who died on 
Senlac. Charlotte Brontby a Yorkshire clergyman's 
daughter, who wrote under the name of " Cur rer Bell ^^ 
was the authoress of some powerful novels. Poverty 
and home-sorrows made her life a hard one, and 
her tone is sad and gloomy. Charles Kingsley, poet, 
preacher, and novelist, first won notice by his tale oif 
Alton Locke, written at the time of the Chartist troubles. 
In it he set forth the sufferings and hopes of working 
men, and pointed out that the Chartists, albeit mis- 
guided, were still honest men entitled to pity and 
sympathy. Elizabeth Gaskell, in her novel of Mary 
Barton^ described the struggles and hardships of the 
working cotton-spinners of Manchester. Harriet 
Martineauy in the reign of William IV., when ques- 
tions of political economy and social reform were in 
everybody's mind, brought out a series of tales — 
Illustrations of Political Economy — in which she made 
her fictions the means of expounding the truths of 
that science. The literature of our day is especially 
rich in tales and novels, the novel now holding the 
place once occupied by the drama, serving as the 
mirror of life and manners, and as the method Id 



34S VICTORIA. [chap xliv 

which authors convey their thoughts on poUtical and 
social questions. Our age has also its own style ol 
poetry, in which the most notable names are thc»se 
of men yet living. Historical literature has during 
the present centur} made great strides, owing to the 
growth of a spirit of research and criticism. Docu- 
ments and manuscripts hitherto unknown or un- 
heeded have been laid open to us, and the evidence 
on which history rests has been sought out and 
weighed with a care such as historians in the last 
century rarely bestowed. In this branch of study, 
Thomas Arnold and George GroU are distinguished 
for their histories of Rome and Greece^ and Henry 
Hart Alilman, Dean of St. PauVs^ for his History of 
iMtin Christianity. He7iry Hallam^ author of the 
Constitutional History of England, is characterized by 
his judicial impartiality ; Lord Macaulay, who tells, 
from the point of view of a Liberal politician, the 
story of the Revolution of 1688, combines the bril- 
liancy of romance with many of the best qualities 
of an historian. The labour and research oi John 
Mitchell Kemble, who devoted himself to the study of 
the Old-English language, history, and antiquities, of 
Sir Francis Palgrave, the historian of the Normans, 
and of Joh7i Lingard, a Roman Catholic priest, whose 
chief work is carried down as far as the accession of 
William and Mary, have all tended to give us more 
accurate and vivid ideas of the earlier History 0/ 
England. 



INDEX. 



AI)juTation, oath of, 263. 

AbolitioE of slavery, Act for the, 334. 

Abyssinian expedition, 341. 

Acre, defence of, 303; bombardment 

of, 340. 
Addison, Joseph, 288, 291 

Aden, 344. 

.Elfgifu or Elgiva, 28. 

/Elfheah (St. Alphege), Archbishop of 
Canterbuiy, 31. 

y^Ifthryth or Elfrida, 20, 30. 

/Elle, King of the South-Sax«>as, 8, 9. 

/Ethelbald, King, 21. 

^.thelbert, King of Kent, conversion 
of, 14, 15 : laws of, 24. 

/Ethelbert, King, ai. 

/^thelflacd. Lady of the Merdans, 23, 

25- 

-^thelfrith. King of the Northum- 
brians, 9, iv^ 

/Etheling, title of, 11. 

/Ethelred I., King, 21. 

/EtKtflred II., KJng, 29—32. 

i^^thelred, Ealdorman oef the Mer- 
cians, 23. 

/Ethelstan , King, 96. 

/^thelwulf, King, 2X. 

Aghrim, battle of, :>S7. 

Agncola, Cnasus JuUus, 4. 

Aid, 82. 

Aidan, St., Bishop of L\ndisf*m, 16. 

\ix-la-Chapelle. Peace of, a8o, aSi. 

Ui.aii, .^ ., 6. 

Albert, Prince Consort, 337. 
A Urt and Discovery ezpeditioa. 3^ 
Alexander II. , Pope, 3!. 
Alexander II L, Pop*. 71, 
Alexander II., King of Scots, 83 — 85 
Alexander I., Emperorof Russia, 307 
Alexandria, battle of, 304. 



Alfred or idfred. King, 21; reisTi 
22 — 24; death 24; literature under 
44. 
Alfred, Mth.&\mg, 34. 
Algiers, bombardment of, 311. 
Allegiance sworn to the Conqueror, 
48; due to the King de facto, 157; 
oath of, 196, 237, 262. 
Amercements, 8a. 

America, Cabot's voyages to, 137, 
colonies in, 187, 199 ; voyages of (dis- 
covery to, 187, 200; British posses, 
sions in, 270, 284, 293, 297, 343, 344 ; 
Spanish America, 187, 275, 278, 326. 
America, United States of, 199, 296. 

297, 3". 343- 
American War of Independence, 39s ~ 

297. 
Amiens, Peace of, 304. 
Anderida, taking of, 8, 9. 
Angles, I, 7, 9, 14. 
Anglo-Saxons, 7 ; Anglo-Saxon Cl»o- 

nicle, see Chronicles. 
Anjou, 69, 7a, 79, 80, 134. 
Anjou, Francis, Duke of, 183. 
Anjou, Philip, Duke of (Philip V. of 

Spain), a6o, 270^ 274, 280. 
Anne, Queen (Prmcess or Denmark), 
946, 248, 262; reign, 264 — a/a ; 
death, 271 ; Queen Maine's Bonnty, 

Anne of Bohemia, Queen, 11& 
Anne Boleyn, Queen, 160— 1S3. 
Anne of Cleves, Queen , 163, 164, 323 
Anne Neville, Queen (daughter of th« 
fUu-1 of Warwick), 140, 142, 145, 
»47' 
iasefan, St., Archbishop oi C—lw 

Wry, ^. 59> 6fl, 6}. 
Anson, Commodore, voj^age of, 278. 
Antoninus Pious, Emperor, 6. 
Appeals, sUtute in restraint of, i-6i. 



3^5o 



INDEX. 



Aquitaine, 69, 7*, 80, xo6, 109, isS, 
133- 

libuthnot, John, 289. 

Architecture, Romanesque, 46, 47; 
Gothic, 9t. 92, 254; Elizabethan, 
254 ; Italian, 92, 254. 

Argyll, John Campbell, Duke of, 473. 

Ajrkwright, Richard, 316. 

Armada, the Spanish, 189 — 191. 

Armed Neutrality Ae, 296. 

Arnold, Thomas, 348. 

Arthur, British prince, g, 120, 150, 151. 

Arthur of Britanny, 79, Bo- 
Arthur, Prince of Wales, 155. 

Articles of Religion, 165, 174. 

Arundel, Earl of, beheaded, 116. 

Arundel. Thomas, Archbishop ©f Can- 
terbury, 116 — 118, 125. 

Ascham, Roger, 202. 

Ascue, Anne, burned, i66. 

Ashantee expedition, 341. 

Assye, battle of, 307. 

Athenree battle of, 102. 

Attainder, Act of, 137, 138 ; the great 
Act of, 256. 

Atterbury, Francis, Bishop of Roch- 
ester, 276. 

Augustine, St., Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, 14, 15. 

Austen, Jane, 323. 

Australia, 314, 344. 

Austria, Leopold, Duke of, 77. 

Austrian Succession, War of th«, 979, 
280. 

Aylesford, battle of, 8. 

Azibcourt. battle of, xa8. 



Babington, Anthony, i96. 

Bacon, Francis, 197, 302. 

Bacon, Roger, 120. 

Badbury, battle of, 9. 

Badby, John, burned, 125, ia6. 

Bseda, the Venerable, 44. 

Baffin's Bay discoTered, aoo. 

Balliol, John, King of Scots, 94 95. 

Ballot, vote by, 339, 345. 

Bamburgh, g ; Lords of, 23, 27. 

Bank of England founded, 259 ; stops 

cash payments, 301. 
Bannockburn, battle of, loi, 102, 320. 
Bamet, battle of, 141. 
Baronets, first creation of, 199. 
Barons, 48. 49, 82, 89, 97, 96 
Barons' Wars, with John, 81 — S4 ; with 

Henry IIL, 87—90. 
Battle, trial by, 42, 51, 74. 
Bayeux, Tapestry of, 46. 
Baxter, Richard, 2$!. 



Beachy Head, battle of, 256. 

Beaufort, Henry, Bishop of Winches- 
ter, and Cardinal, 133. 

Beaumont and Fletcher, 205. 

Becket, Thomas, Archbishop of Cai> 
terbury, 70 — 72, 121, 164. 

Bedford, John, Duke of, 125, 131, 133 
149. 

Benevolences, 142, 147, 153, 197. 

Berengaria of Navarre, Queen, 78. 

Berlin Decree, 306, 311. 

Bernerf , Julyans or Juliana, 151. 

Bemida, 9, 23. 

Berths, wife of /Ethelbert, 14, 15. 

Berwick, Duke of, 267- 

Bewick, Thomas, 325 

Bible, 16s, 166, 178, 201 ; Wycliffe'a 
translation of, 112, 200; Tyndale's, 
200; Rogers's, 178, 200; Coverdale's, 
200 ; Cromwell's or the Great Bible, 
165, 20I ; Cranmer's or the second 
Great Bible, 201 ; Bishops* Bible, 
a.; Geneva Bible, t6.; Authorized 
Version, 194, 201. 

Birkenhead, wreck of the, 341. 

Black Death, the, 108, 113. 

Black Prince, the, 108. See Edward, 
Prince of Wales. 

Blake, Robert, Admiral, 222, 295, aad 

Blenheim, battle of, 266. 

Blockade, 306. 

Boadicea, revolt of, 4. 

Bocher, Joan, burned, 174. 

Bolingbroke, Henry of, tee Henrj 
IV. 

Bolingbroke, Henry St. John, Via- 
count, 269 — 273. 

Bombay, 233. 

Bonner, Edmund, Bishop of London 
173, 178, 182. 

Boroughs, the Five, 24: parliamentary^ 
8^, 97, 331, 334 ; borough corpora 
tions, 239, 244, 247, 331, 335: parli^ 
mentary franchise in boroughs, 331 
345 ; reform of, 335. 

Bosworth, battle of, 148, 154. 

Boulogne, 153, 167, 171. 

Boyne, battle of the, 257. 

Bradshaw, John, 217, 219, 231. 

Breda, Declaration from, 229. 

Bretigny, Peace of, 109, 127. 

Bretwalda, 10. 

Bridgewater, Francis Egerton, Duk< 

of. 315- 

Brihtnoth, Ealdorman of the East 
Saxons, 30. 

Brindley, James, 315. 

Iritain, 1—3 ; under the Romans 
3 — 7 ; Church of, 6 ; Fritish king- 
doms, 10, II ; Lord of, 25 ; Empe 
m of, 26. Se* eUa* Great Britain- 



INDEX. 



351 



British Columbia, 344. 

Britons, r — 5. 7 — 11.. 

Bronte, Charlotte, 347. 

Bruce, Edward, in Ireland, los. 

Bruce, Robert, Lordof Annandale, ^4. 

Bruce, Robert, Earl of Camck 

(Robert I. of Scotland), 96, loi, loa, 

330. 
Brunanburh, battle of, a6; soag of, 

Buckingham, Edward Stafford, Duke 

of, 159. 
Buckingham, George Villiers, Duke 

of, 196, 198, 206. 
Buckingham, George Villiers, Duke 

of (son of the above), 236. 
Buckingham, Henry Stafford, Duke 

of, 143, 144, 146, 147. 
Bunyan, John, 252. 
Buonaparte, Louis Napoleon, 342. 
Buonaparte, Napoleon, 302 — 307, 309, 

310, 320. 
Burghley, William Cecil, Baron of, 

181. 
Burgundy, Charles the Bold, Duke of, 

140, 141. 
Burgundy. Margaret, Duchess of, 

140, 149, 152, 154. 
Burgundy, Philip the Good, Duke of, 

129, 133, 139. 
Burke, Edmund, 300, 302. 
Burnet, Gilbert, Bishop of Salisbury, 

Bumey, Frances, 319. 

Bums, Robert. 320. 

Bute, John Stuart, Earl of, 293, 294. 

Butler, Samuel, 251. 

Byng, Admiral John, shot, 28«. 

Byng, Admiral Sir George, 274. 

B3^on, George Gordon, Lora, 3*«. 



Ckbal, the, 236. 

Cabinet, the, 236. 

Cabot, John and Sebastian, 157. 

Cabul, retreat from, 340. 

Cade, Jack, 134, 135. 

Cadwaila, Welsh long, 16. 

Caidmon, 43, 44. 

Caesar, Caius Julius, 2, 286. 

Calais, 106, 107, 109, 13^, 136, 179, 180. 

CalcutU. Black Hole of, 286. 

Caledonia, 2; Caledonians, 4, 6, 7. 

Cambridge, Richard, Earl of, 128, 135. 

Cambridge, University of, 91, 137, 169, 

30I, 20a, 21^. 
Camden, William, ^02. 
Campbell, Sir CoKn (Lord Clyde), 342 



Campbell, Thonas, mi. 

Campeggio, Cardinal, 160. 

Camperdown, battle of, 302. 

Canada. 284, 297, 311, 343, 344. 

Caxuiing, George, 321, 326, 327, ;p8. 

Canterbury, city of, 15 ; taken by the 
Danes, 31 ; Archbishop of, 15, 18, 
71, 80; cathedral churcn, 15, 9a. 

Cape Col my, 341, 344. 

Cape St. Vincent, battle of, 301. 

Caractacus or Caradoc, 3. 

Caroline of Brandenburg^Anspach, 
Queen, 278, 279. 

Carc^line of Brunswick-Wolfenbfittel. 
Queen, 325, 326. 

Cassivelaunus, 2. 

Catesby, Robert, 195, 196. 

Catholic Emancipation, 328, 329. 

Cato-Street conspiracy, 325. 

Caxton, William, 149 — 151. 

Ceadda (St. Chad), Bishop of Lich- 
field, 17. 

Ceawlin, King of the West-Saxons, 9. 

Cecil, Robert (Earl of Salisbury), 181, 
192, 195, 196. 

Cerdic and Cynric, 9. 

Ceylon, 310, 314. 

Chancellor, 50. 

Channel Islands, 80, 119. V 

Charles I., King (Prince of Wales). 
travels to Spain, 198 ; rei^n, 8o6>- 
219; beheaded, 218: pamted by 
Vandyck, 32J. 

Charles II., King, 146, 218, 220; de- 
feated at Worcester, ^21 ; escape, 
aai, 222 ; declaration from Breda. 
229; restoration, ii.; reign, 230 — 
240 ; death, 240. 

Charles the Great, Emperor, 44. 

Charles V., Emperor, 159, 160, 176. 

Charles, Archduke of Austria, after- 
wards the Emperor Charles VI., 260, 
265, 267, 270, 279. 

Charles IV., King of France, 103, 105. 

Charles V., King of France, 109. 

Charles VI., King of France, 127, 129, 
131- 

Chiu-Ies VII., King of France, 129, 
131- 133- 

Charles II., King of Spain, 260, 289. 

Charles XII., Kmg of Sweden, 274. 

Charles Edward Stuart (the Young 
Pretender), 276, 280 — 282. 

Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Sireliti, 
Queen, 293, 319. 

Charlotte Augusta, Princess, 312. 

Charters, 51. 65 ; Charter of Liberties 
granted by Henr>' 1, 62, 81: the 
Great Charter, 82, Sj, 91, 237; 
Charter of the Forest, 91 ; Coimi* 
mation of the Charters. 08: charter 



352 



INDEX. 



and prmleges of London. 51, 139, 347« 
a95. 

Chartists, the, 139. 

Chathaiw, Wlham Fitt, Earl of, 379, 
383, 284, 293, 396. 

Chaucer, Geoffrey, m. 

Cheke, Sir Johu, 203. 

Chester, battle of, 9. 

China, wars with, 340. 

Chronicles, the English, 8, 9, 44, 45, 
120. 

Church, the British, 6. 

Church of England, founded, 14 — j8 ; 
synod of Whitby, 17 ; monastic 
movement, 27 — 29; relations with 
Rome, 38, 5^, 112 J synod of West- 
minster, 42 ; investiture controversy, 
63 ; clerical privileges, 70 ; sides with 
the Barons, 81 ; its liberties secured, 
83; Lollard movement, 113, 125 — 
137 ; separation from Rome, 161 — 
163; Reformed doctrines, 162, 165, 
166 ; dissolution of the monasteries, 
164; progress of Protestantism, 169, 
173, 174 ; reaction against Protestan- 
tism, 176 ; reconciliation with Rome, 
178 ; Reformed Church established, 
181 — 184 ; non-conformists, 182, 183, 
195, 232 ; James favours episcopacy, 
Z94; revived ceremonies, 207; Laud's 
government, 208 ; " root and branch" 
party, 210; strife of Presbyterians 
and Independents, 213, 216; Pres- 
byterianism established, 215; Crom- 
well's ecclesiastical policy, 227 ; 
episcopacy restored, 232 ; James's 
ecclesiastical policy, 242 — 245 ; the 
sovereign to belong to the established 
Church, 263 ; popu4arity of, 268 ; 
Queen Anne's Bounty, 271 ; occa- 
sional conformity, 271, 277; Metho- 
dist movement, 287, 288. 

Church of the Irish Scots, i6, 17. 

Church of Ireland, reformed, 184 ; 
disestablished, 345. 

Church of Scotland, 193, 268. 

Churchill, see Marlborough. 

Churls, 12, 49. 

Cintra, Convention of, 307. 

Clarence, George, Duke of, 140 — 143. 

Clarence, Lionel, Duke of, iii, 123. 

Clarence, Thomas, Duke of, 125, 130. 

Clarendon, Constitutions of, 71, 73. 

Clarendon, Edward Hyde Eaii of, 
210, 211, 235, 251. 

Clarkson, Th>5mas, 317. 

Claudius, Emperor, 3. 

Clement VI., Pope, 107. 

Oement VII., Pope, x6o. 

CUflford, Lord, 136. 

aifibrd. Sir Thomas, 336. 



Clive, Robert, Lord, 185, t66. 

Cnut or Canute, King, 33 — 34, 48. 

Cobbett, William, 332. 

Cobden, Richard, 338. 

Cobham, Sir John Oklcastle. Lovd, 
127. 

" Coldstreamers," 228, 331. 

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 331. 

ColUns, William, 291. 

Colman, Bishop of Lindisfam, 17. 

Columba, St., 16. 

Commission, the High, 183,308,3x0, 
the Ecclesiastical, 243, 247. 

Commons, House of, first formed, 89, 
97, 98 ; its power of impeachment, 
no; Roman Catholics excluded 
from, 186, 237, 328 ; protests its 
right to treat of state affairs, 198: 
attempts to prevent publication of 
debates, 294, 295 ; influence of peers 
ini 331 ; Jews admitted to, 345. 

Commonwealth, the, 219 — 220. 

Compton, Henry, Bishop of LondoB« 
243, 246, 247. 

Conservatives, 334. 

Constantine, Kin? of Scots, 36. 

Cook, Captain, 314, 315. 

Copenhagen, battle of, 304, 331 ; beu^ 
bardiuent of, 307. 

Corn Laws, 311, 328, 337, 338. 

Cornwaile, John, 119. 

Comwallis, Admiral, 305. 

Cornwallis, Earl, 297, 314. 

Corporation Act, 231, 277, 328. 

Council, the Great, 49, 82 ; called 
Parliament, 87, 88 ; Council 0# 
Merton, 91 ; Council of the North, 
208, 210. 

Country Party, 237. 

County franchise restricted, 137; e«» 
tended, 334, 345. 

Courtenay, Edward (Earl of Deron), 
176, 177. 

Covenant of Scotland, 209; Covenant 
taken m England, 214. 

Cowley, Abraham, 251. 

Cowper, William, 320. 

Cranmer, Thomas, Archbishop d 
Canterbury, 160, 161, 165, 166, 17a, 
174, 176, 179, 201. 

Cricy, battle of, 106. 

Crimean War, 341, 342. 

Cromwell, Oliver, in the first Civil 
War, 213, 214 ; in 4he second Civil 
War, 216; one of the King's 
judges, 217 ; puts down mutiny, 
320 : his campaigns in Jreland, 
ib.; wins the battles of Dunbar 
and Worcester, 221 ; turns out the 
Parliament, 223 ; rules as ProtectQl. 
*a4-'-337; deaUi, 236; eoclemsticu 



INDEX. 



353 



poScy. taj: insult to hi« corpse, 

Cromwell. Richard, 226, 228. 
CromwelL. Thomas (Earl of Essex), 

163 — 166, 201. 
Crosby, Brass, Lord Mayor of London, 

295. 
Culloden. battle of, 281 
Cumberland, 26 ; earldom of, 59, 68. 
Cumberland, Ernest Augustus, Duke 

of (King of Hanover), 335. 
Cumberland, Henry Frederick, Duke 

of, 312. 
Cumberland, William, Duke of, 280, 

381. 
Cuthbert, St., Bishop of Lindisfam 

«7- 



Danby, Earl of, 246, 248. 

Danegeld, 30. 

Danes, 20—27, 30—33, 35, 41, 44, 59. 

David I., King of Scots, 66, 68. 

David n. (Bruce), King of Scots, 
107. 

David of Wales, 93. 

Davis, John, 187. 

Davy, Sir Hvraiphry, 336. 

Day. Thomas, 320. 

Defender of the Faith, 168. 

De Foe, Daniel, 289. 

Dcira, 9, 14, 33. 

Delamer, Lord, 248. 

Deorham, battle of, 9. 

Derby, Earl of, beheaded, aai. 

Derwentwater, James Radcliffe, Earl 
of, 274. 

Despenser, Sir Hugh le, loa, 103. 

Dettingen, battle of. 279. 

Devonshire, Earl of\ 246, 248. 

Diarmaid, i'i j of Leinster, 74. 

Dickens, Ch rl :, 347. 

Disinherited, the, 30. 

Disssnters, 232, f ^ 261,268, 271, 27a, 
377, 288, 328. St* also Noncon- 
formists. 

j..OMc;:'':.y. 55. 

Dover Treaty o<, 236. 

Drake, Francis, 188 — 190. 

Druids, 3. 

Dryden, John, 234, 252. 

Dudley. Edrqund, 156, 15a. 

Duke, title of, in. 

Dunbar, battle of, aai. 

Dunkirk, 226, 233. 

Dun Stan, St. Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, 27 — 30. 

Datch Wars, 220, 23^ — 236, 296, 301, 
30a ; Dutch possessions, 310. 



Ealdormen, 9, 13, 37. 

Ealhwine or Alcuin, 44. 

Earls, Old-English, la ; Danish, tj 

in nth century, 33, 50. 

East-Anglia. 9, 10, 21 — 23, 25, 33. 

East India Company, 19a, 233, 985., 
286, 336, 342, 343. 

Eddystone lighthouse, 287, 316. 

Edgar or Eadgar, King, 28, 29. 

Edgar, /Etheling, 40, 53, 54, 62. 

Eigeliill, battle of, 212. 

Ef.geworth, Maria, 322, 123. 

Edmund or Eadmund, St., King ol 
the East- Angles, 21, 3a. 

Edmund the Magnificent, King, 26, 37. 

Edmund Ironside, King, 32 ; his chil- 
dren, 33. 

Edmund, son of Henry III., 86, 9a 

Edred or Eadred, King, 27. 

Edward or Eadward the Elder, King, 
24, 25- 

Edward the Martyr, 29. 

Edward the Confessor, King, 35 — 38, 
42 ; his law, 62. 

Edward I. , King, birth of, 86 ; in the 
Barons' War, 88 — 90 ; goes on the 
Crusade, 90; reign, 92—99 ; death, 
97 ; difficulties with his son. 100 ; 
story of his massacre of the oards* 
04, 291 ; not popular, 112. 

Edward II., King, created Prince of 
Wales, 94 ; in Scotland, 96 ; reign, 
99 — 103; deposition, 103; murder, 
104; unpopular, 112. 

Edward III., King (Earl of ChesterX 
103: reign, 105— 113 ; death, no. 

Edward IV., King (Duke of York), 
137 ; reign, 138—143; death, 143. 

Edward V., King, 143; reign, 143— 
145; murder, 146, 153. 

Edward VI , Ki r e , birth of, 163; suc- 
cession, 167; r. gn, 168—174; death, 
172 ; schools and hospitals, 173, 174. 

Edward, Prince of Wales (the Black 
Prince), 106 — m. 

Edward, Prince of Wales (son of 
Henry VI.), 136, 130, 140, 141, 150- 

Edward, Pnnce of Wales (son of 
Richard III.), 147. 

Edwin or Eadwine, King of the Nort- 
humbrians, II, 15, 16. 

Edwin, Earl of the Mercians, 37, 30, 
40. 

Edwy or Eadwig, Kingf, 27, 28 

Egbert or Ecgberht,- King, 19—21. 

Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen, 69, 72, 

77- 
Eleanor of Castile, Queen, 93, 97 ; 
crosses to her memory, 92, 97. 



354 



INDEX 



EleaaAT of Provence, Queen, 86 — 88. 
Kleroentary Education Act, 345, 346. 
Eliot, Sir J.phn, 207. 
Elizabeth, Queen (daughter of Henry 

VIll.), 102, 163, 167, 175, 177, 197 ; 

reign, 180 — 192 ; death, 193 ; literary 

acquirements, 202. 
Eiizabe-th Wydevile, Queen, 140, 141, 

144, 145- 
Elizabeth of York, Queen, 146, 148, 

Elisabeth, Queen of Bohemia, 198, 
263. 

Elizabeth, daughter of Charles I., 218, 
219. 

Elmet, II. 

Emma of Normandy, 3a, 33. 

Emperor of Britain, 26. 

Empress of India, 343. 

Empson, Sir Richard, 156, 158. 

England, name of, i, 7 ; King of, 84 ; 
Church of. see Church. 

English, the, origin of, i, 7; conquer 
Britain, 1.7 — 12; religion, 11; king 
and people, 11, 12 ; early government 
of, 13; converted to Christianity, 
14 — 17 ; ' )ld-English manners and 
customs, 40 — 42; under tlie Nor- 
mans, 45, 46 ; English Chronicle, see 
Chronicles ; language, 43, 118, 119. 

£ssex, kingdom of, 9, 10, 33, 25. 

Essex, Robert Devereux, Earl of, 191, 
192. 

Essex, Robert De\ ereux. Earl of (ton 
of the above), 212, 214. 

Estates, the Three, 98. 

Eton College, 137, r6p. 

Eugene of Savoy, Pnnce, a66 — 268. 

Eveiham, battle of, 90. 

Exchequer, shutting of the, 236. 

Excise, 231, 278. 

Exclusion Bill, 238. 

Exeter. Henrj' Courtenay, Marquess 
of, 165. 

Exeter, Henry Holland, Duke of, 139. 



Fairfax, Ferdinando, Lord, 314. 
Fairfax., Sir Thomas (after.vards Lord 

Fairfax). 214, 216, 217, 228. 
Falkirk, battle of [1298]. 96; battle 

..f [1746], 281. 
Falkland, Lucius Carey, Viscount 

210, 2TI, 213. 
Faukes, Guy or Guido, 195, 196. 
Fealty, 47. 

Ferdinand, King of Aragon, 154, 155. 
Feudalism, 47 — 49. 
Fielding, Henry, ago. 



Ftfth-Monarchy men, 227, 131. 
Fiji Islands, 344. 

Fisher, John, Bishop of Rocbestei 
162. 

Fitz-Gerald, Maurice, 74. 
Fitz-Osbern. William (Ear! of Here 

ford), 53. 
Fitz-Stephen, Robert, 74. 
Fitz-Walter, Robert, 8a. 
Five Boroughs, the, 24. 
Five Members, attempt to arrest tlui. 

211. 
Flamsteed, John, 254. 
Flodden, battle of, 159. 
Folkland, 11, 50. 
Fontenoy, battle of, 279, a^o. 
Forests, 55, 66, 8i ; ChaiVer of the 

Forest, 91. 
Forster, Thomas, of Bamburgh, 274. 
Fortescue, Sir John. 150. 
Fox, Charles James, 298 — 300, 317, 

319- 
Fox, George. 227. 
France, title of King of. retained by 

the English Kings, 133 ; given up, 

313- 
Francis I.. Kin^ nf France. 159. 
Franklin, Sir J.-hn. 346. 
Frederick, Prince of Wales, 277, 286. 
Frederick the Great. King of Prussia, 

282. 
Frederick V., Elector Palatine. 198. 
Free trade, progress of, 327, 328, 338. 
French Revolution, the Great, 265, 

299, 300, 320. 326 ; War of the, 299 

— 304; revolution of 1830, 330; of 

18^8, 339. 
Frobisher, Martin, 187, 189. 
Fjrrd, la. 



Gael, the, a. 

Galway, Earl of (Marquess of Ru- 

vieny), 267. 
Gardiner. Stephen, Bishop of Wm- 

Chester 165, 173, 176. 
Gascony, Duchy of, 69, 8c, 133. 
Gaskell, Elizabeth, 347. 
Gaunt, John of, see Lancaster, Duke of. 
Gaveston, Piers, 99 — loi. 
Gay, John, 290. 
Geoffrey of Monmouth, lao. 
Geoffrey Piantagenet of Anjou, 64. 
Geoffrey, son of Henry II., 72. 73- 
George I., King (Elector of Bruns- 

wick-Luneburg), 270 ; re\gn, 27a— 

277 ; death, 276. 
George II., King, 376; reign, 277— 

a88 ; death, 2S0. 
George III., King, a86, 324; reign, 393 

->3i7 ; death, 31a ; court of, 3*0 : 



INDEX. 



355 



omosed to the P.otnaD Catholic 

claims, 3s8. 
George IV., King (Prince Regent), 

298, 299, 312; reign, 3*5 — 330'» 

death, 329. 
George, Prince of Denmark, 846, 264. 
Gibbon, Edward, 319. 
Gibraltar, 266, 270, 297. 
Gildas, 7. 
Gilds, 51. 

Ginkell, General (Earl of Athlone), 257. 
Glendowcr, uwen, 122 — 124. 
Glenshiel, surrender of Spaniards at, 

275- 
Gloucester, Gilbert of Clare, Earl of, 

89, 90. 
Gloucester, Henry, Duke of, ai8, 319. 
Gloucester, Humfrey, Duke of, 125, 

»33. 134. 149: 
Gloucester, Richard, Duke of, ue 

Richard III. 
Gloucester, Robert of Caen, Earl of, 

67, 68, 119, I30. 
Gloucester, Thomas of Woodstock, 

Duke of. III. 
Gloucester, William Henry, Duke of, 

313. 
Goduiphin, Earl of, 269. 
(>ods. the Old-Enghsh, 11. 
Godwin, Earl of the West-Saxons, 33, 

34. 36- 
Goldsmith, Oliver, 318, 320. 
Ck>oJerat, battle of, 340. 
Gordon, Lord George, 297, 298. 
Gower, John, 121. 
Grafton, Duke of, 294, 318. 
Grand Alliance, the, 256, 265. 
Granville, Earl of (Lord Carteret), ■83. 
Grattan, Henry, 313. 
Gray, Thomas, 94, 291. 
Great Britain, King of, 198; United 

Kuigdom of, 268. 
Gregory the Great, Pope, 14, 40. 
Gregory Xill., Pope, 286. 
Grenville, George, 294, 295. 
Grey, Earl, 332, 333. 
Grey, Lady Jane, 172, 175 — 177, aoa. 
Grocyn, William, 201. 
Grote. George, 348. 
Gundulf, Bishop of Rochester, 46. 
Gunpowder Plot, the, 195, 196. 
Guthrum, Danish King of East-AngUa, 

23. 33. 
Gytba, wife of Godwin, 33, 39. 

H. 

Habeas Corpus Act, 337, «38,"34a. 
Hadrian, Emperor, 6. 
Hadrian IV., Pope (Nicholas Brake- 
spere), 74. 



Halfdene, Danish King, 93. 

Hallain, Henry, 34^. 

Hamilton, Duke of 216, 219. 

Hampden, John, 209, 2H — 213. 

Hanover, House o?, 263 ; Elector of, 
270 ; Hanover seized by Buonaparte, 
305 ; separated from Great Britain, 
335; Hanoverian troops, 279, 28a. 

Harold 1., King, 34, 55. 

Harold II., iving (,i.arl of the Wc<^ 
Saxons), 36—39, 52, 56, 347. 

Harold Hardrada, King of the Noi» 
wegians, 38, 39. 

Harthacnut, King, 34, 35. 

Harvey, VVtlliain, 253. 

Hastings or Senlac, battle of, 39, 4r. 

Hastings, Lord, beheaded, 144. 

Hastings, Marquess of, 314. 

Hastings, Warren, 314. 

Havclock, General Henry, 34a. 

Hawkins, Julin. 187, 189. 

Head of the Church, 161, i8a. 

Heavenfield, baitle of, 16. 

Heligoland, 310. 311. 

Hengest and Horsa, legend o^ 8* 
283. 

Henrietta Maria, Queen, ao6, axt. 

Henrietta Maria, Duchess of Orleaiu, 

2T0. 

Henry I., King (son of William I.), 
48 ; grants charters, 51, 651, 65 ; 
attacked by his brothers, 58 ; reign, 
61 — 65 ; death, 65 ; confusion after 
his death, 66. 

Henry II., King, 45. 48, 76'; birth, 6a; 
succession, 68 ; reign, 69 — 75 ; death, 
73- 

Henry III., King, 84; reign, 85 — 91; 
death, 90 ; begins to rebuild West- 
minster, 37, 90. 

Henry IV., King (Duke of Hereford 
and Duke of Lanca.'^ter), banishment 
and return of, 117; made King, 118; 
reign, 121 — 126 ; death, 125. 

Henry V., King (Prince of Wales), 
story of his imprisonment for con- 
tempt, 124 ; present at the burning 
of Badby, 126; reign, 126 — 131; 
death, 130. 

Henry VI., King, 130; reign, 131 — 
137; deposition, X37 ; flight and 
capture, 139; rcbioration, 141; death, 
ib. ; his library, 149. 

Henry VII., King (Earl of Richmond^ 
146 — 149; reign, 152 — 157; death, 
156 ; his chapel, 92, 146, 156. 

Henry VIII., King, 155, 323; reiga« 
158 — 168 ; death, 167; his will, 167, 
168, 184, 193 ; attends to naval 
matters, 168. 

Henry, the Younger King, 71 — 73 



35<5 



INDEX. 



Henry Fr«dei1ck, Pri.ice of Wales, 
195. 198- 

Henr>' V [. , Emperor, 77, ^8. 
Herbert, Admiral (Earl of Torrington), 

246, 256. 
Hereford. Henr>' of Bolingbroke, 

Duke of, see Henry IV. 
Hereford. Huaifrey liohua, Earl of, 

98. 
Hereford, Humfrey Bohun, Ear) of 

(son of the above), 103 
Hereward, 54. 

Hild or Hilda, St. , Abbess, 17, 44. 
Hildebrand (Pope Gregory VII.), 38. 
Hogarth, William. 287, 323, 324. 
Holies, iJenzil, 207, 211. 
Holy Alliance, 326. 
Homage, 37, 47. 
H. niiidon Hill, battle of, 123. 
Honorius, Emperor, 7. 
Hooker, Ricliard, 203. 
Hooper, John, Bishop of Glr>ucestc*, 

179- 
Hotspur (Sir Henr>' Percy), 123. 
Housecarls, 33, 39. 
Hv^ward, Charles, Lord, o£ Eflingham, 

rSg, 190. 
Howard, John, 317. 
HoM-e, Admiral Earl, 300, 30a. 
Hubert of lUirgh, 79, 85. 
Hudson, Henry, 200. 
Hudson's Kay, 200, 270. 
Huguenots, 250, 257. 
Hume, JJavid, 290. 
Hundred Yuars' War, the, beginning 

of, 106 ; renewed by Henry V. , 

127 ; end of, 133. 
Husicisson, William, 327, 328. 
Hyder Ali, Rajah of Mysore, 313. 



Ida, King of Bemicia, 9. 

Impeachiiieni, power of, no. 

Indemnity, Charles II. 's Act of, 231. 

Independents, 183, 213 — 216, 227. 

India, 24, 192. 284-286, 307. 313, 314, 
330, 336, 342, 343- 

indulgence. Declarations of, 232, 244, 
245- . 

Ine, King of tl'.e West-Saxons, 19,24. 

Innocent III., Pope, 80, 81, 83. 

Innocent XI., Pope, 243. 

Inve'.=tlture, 63. 

Ireland, 2, 8, 16; Danes in, 21 ; 
slave-trade with, 42 ; English con- 
quest of, 74, 75 ; Biuce in, 102 ; 
Simnel in, 153 : raised to the rank of 
a kingdom, 168 ; Church of, 184, 
)4S ; Tyrone'* rebellion, 191 ; plan- 



tation of Ulster, T0 1 ; rebrllinn of 
1641, 210 ; Cromwell in, 220; united 
with the English Commonwealth, 
225 ; settlement of, 233 ; Tyrconne! 
inj 243 ; William assumes the sove. 
reignty of, 250 ; Irishry and Eng 
lishry, 255, 256 ; war in, 256, 257 ; 
Roman Catholics in, 257 : Irish 
forfeitures, 260; ready to revolt, 
301 ; obtains an independent parli? 
ment, 313 ; United Irishmen, ib . 
Union with Great Britain, ib. 
Catholic Association, 329 ; Refonr- 
Bill passed for, 334 ; famine in. 338; 
recent legislation for, 345. 

Ireton, Henry, 217, 220, 231. 

Isabel of France, Queen, 100, 102, 103, 
105. 

Isabel, Queen, wife of Charles VI. of 
France, 129. 



J. 



Jacobins, 321. 

Jacobites, 255, 257, 261, 270 — 27a, 274 
276 ; conspiracy for the assassination 
of William III., 259; insurrection 
of 1715, 273, 274; of 1745,280, 281, 

Jamaica taken, 225. 

James I. , King of Scots, 130. 

James IV., King of Scots, 154, 155, 
159- 

James V,, King of Scots, 166. 

James I. of England and VI. of Scot- 
land, King, 184, 186, 192 : reign, 
193 — 200; death, 198. 

Tames II., King (Duke of York), 2r8, 
233, 234, 237 — 240 ; reign, 240—249; 
abdication, 249; lands in Ireland, 
256; at the Boyne, 257: expectJ 
English support, 258; deatii, 261. 

fames Francis Edward Stuart (the Old 
Pretender), 246- ^48, 261, 263, 270, 
271, 273 — 276, 280 ; death, 282. 

Jane Seynn ur, Queen. 163. 

Jeffreys, Lord Chancellor, 242. 243 
249. 

Tenner, Dr. Edward, 315. 

Jersey. French attack upon, 297. 

Jerusalem, Patri.irch of, 24; city of 
taken by haladin, 76. 

Jesuits, 185. 

Jews, 98, 99, 227, 345. 

Joan of Arc, 132. 

John, King (son of Henry II.), 51,72, 
73. 77. 78; reign, 79—84: death, 
84; tribute to Rome, 81, 112. 

John the Good, King of France. 108 
109. 

Johnson, Dr. Samuel, 317, 31b 



INDEX. 



357 



'ones, Inigo, 154. 
I'lnson, Ben, 205. 
iuiiius. Letters of, 318. 
fury, trill by, 74. 
Justicw, 50 
jutes, 7, 8, ip. 

Juxon, William, Bishop of London, 
318 



Kaffir wars, 341. 

Kalendar, reform of the, 286, 287. 

Katharine of Aragon, Queen, 155, 160, 
161. 

Katharine of Braganza, Queen, 233. 

Katharine of France, Queen, 129, 130. 

Katharine Howard, Queen, 164. 

Katharine Parr, Queen, 164, 170. 

Kciable, John Mitchell, 348. 

Ken. Thomas, Bishop of Bath and 
Weilo. 291. 

Kent, people of, 2 ; kingdom of, 8, 
10. 

Kentish Petition, the, 261. 

Ket, Robert, 171. 

Kingsley, Charles, 347. 

Kirke, CoLnel Percy, 242. 

Knights, 47. 48; of the shire, 89, 97, 
ixo, 137 ; Templars, 104; of the Gar- 
ter, iii; of St. John, 310. 

Knight-service, tenures by, 47 ; abol- 
ished, 49, 231. 



Labourers, Statutes of, 108, 114, 134. 

Labuan, 344. 

La Hogue, battle of, 258, 359. 

Lambert, John, 22S. 

Lancaster, Henry of Bolingbroke, 
Duke of, see Henry IV. 

Lancaster, John of Gaunt, Duke of, 
109 — ri2, 115, 117. 

Lancaster, Thomas, Earl of, loi, 102. 

Land-tax first imposed, 258. 

Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, 
55—57- 

Langland, author of Piers Plotvvian, 
121. 

Laiigton, Stephen, Archbishop of Can- 
terbury. 80. 81, 83. 

Language, Celtic, 2, 5 ; English, 43, 

118, 119; French, 118, 119; Greek, 
901, 202: Latin, 5, 15, 24, 118, 

119, aoo, 202 ; Low-Dutch, 7. 
Latimer. Hugh, 169, 176, 179. 
Laud. William, Archbiabop of Canter- 

bury »o7 — axa viy 



Leicester, Robert Dudley, Earl ot 
181, 187, 189, 191. 

Leicester, Simon of Montfort, Earl 
of, 87 — 90, 97. 

Lenthall, Speaker, an. 

Leo IV., P>-pe, 22. 

Leo X., Pope, 168. 

Levellers, 220, 227. 

Lewes, battle and Mise of, 88. 

Liberals, 326, 334. 

Limerick, surrender of, 257. 

Limoges, Viscount of, 78; massacre 
of, 109. 

Lincoln, battles of, 68, 85. 

Lincoln, John de la Pole, Earl of, 
I47i 152, 153- 

Lingard, John, 348. 

Lisle, Alice, beheaded, 24a. 

Literature, Old-English, 41, 43 — ^45; 
from the Norman Conquest to Chau- 
cer, 119 — 121; :5th century, 1 50. 151 ; 
i6th and early 17th century, 200 — 
205 ; Stuart and Revolution periods, 
250 — 253 ; under Anne and the two 
Georges, 289 — 291 ; end of i8th cen- 
tury, 317 — 320 ; early 19th century, 
320 — 323 ; under Queen Victoria, 
347—348. 

Llywelyn, son of Jurwerth, 85. 

Llywelyn, Prince of Wales, 90, 93. 

Locke, John. 253. 

Lollards, 113, ^14, 125, 127, 150; sta- 
tutes against, 125, 169, 178. 

London (Lundimum), probably burn- 
ed in Boadicea's revolt, 4 ; citizens 
of, 13; its first bishop, 15; beats 
ofi" the Danes, 31 ; escape of Arch- 
bishop Robert from, 36 ; after the 
battle of Hastings, 40 ; descrip- 
tion of, 42 ; charter and privileges 
of, 51, 239, 247, 295; Mayor of, 51, 
239 ; receives Stephen, 66 ; Matilda 
in, 68; admits the Banns, 82; its 
liberties secured. ib.\ under inter- 
dict, 83 ; its quarrel with t!ie court. 
86; Londoners in the Barons' War, 
87, 88; insurgent peasants in, 115: 
tntry of Henry V. , 129 ; C:ide in, 134, 
135; acknowledges Edward IV., 
137 ; supports the Reformation, 173 ; 
corporation founds hospitals and 
sch'jols, ib.\ entr^' of Mary, 175; 
Wyatt in, 177 ; in the Armada year, 
189; sides with the Parliament. 212; 
entry oi Monk. 228 ; entry o£ 
Charles II., 229 ; the Plague in, 233, 
234; the Great Fire of, 234 ; forfeits 
its chaiter, 239 ; charter restored, 
X47 ; after the flight of James, 249; 
dispute with the House of Coo»i 
mon&, s>95 Protestant riou in, aof , 



358 

298 : Metropolitan Police Force. 

?3o ; Qot included in the Municipal 
!orporation Act, 335 ; Chartists in, 

339- 
Londonderry, siege of, 2j6. 
Longchamp, William, Bishop of Ely, 

77- 

Lords, House of, how formed, 89. 98 ; 
refuse-s to concur in the trial of 
Charles, 217 ; Commons vot« the 
abolition of, 218 ; Cromwell's Lords, 
225 ; House of Lords restored, 219 ; 
Bishop.^ restored t otheir seats in, 232 ; 
Roman Catholics excluded from, 237; 
throws out the Reform Bill, 333. 

Lothian, 33. 

Louis VII., King of France, 69, 71, 
72. 

Louis, son of Philip Augustus (after- 
wards Louis VIII. of France), 83 — 
85. 

Louis XL, King of France, 142. 

Louis XII. , King of France, 159. 

Louis XIV., King of France, 233, 
2^,5, 236. 239. 241, 247, 249, 250, 255, 
256, 256, 261, 265—267, 275, .189. 

Louis XVI. , King of France, 299, 300. 

Louis XVIII., King of France, 309, 
310. 

Lovel, Lord, 147, 152, 153. 

Lucknow, relief of, 342, 343. 

Luddites, 312. 

Lumley, Lord, 246. 247. 

Lydgate, John, 150. 

Lyly, John, 203. 

Lytton, Lord, 347. 



M. 



Macaulay, Lord, 348. 

Magdalen College, ejection of the 

Fellows of, 243, 244, 247. 
Magna Carta or the Great Charter, 

82, 83, 91, 237. 
Mahratta wars, 307, 313. 
Maine, 56, 69, 79, 80, 134. 
Malcolm I., King of Scots, 26. 
Malcolm III. King of Scots, 54, 58. 
Maldon. battle of, 30. 
Malplaquet, battle of, 268 
Malta, 704, 310. 
" Manchester Massacre," the, jia, 325, 

332- 
Mandeville, Sir John, lao; 121. 



INDEX. 



foha Erskine, Earl of, 273, 274. 



Manitoba, 343. 
Mar, John Ers 
March, Edmund Mortimer, Earl of, 

111. 
March, Edmund Mortimer, Earl of 

(grandflon of the above\ 122, 123 

sa6, 128. 



Marchen, Lords, 94. f02. 

Margaret of Anjou, ^ueen, 133, 13b 

137. 139— 142- , „ 

Margaret Tudor, '^een ot Scots 

155- 
Marlborough, John Churchill, DuJc; 

of, 248, 264 — 267, 269. 
Marlborough, Sarah, Duchess o£ 

(Lady Churchill), 248, 264, 269. 
Marston Moor, battle of, 214. 
Martineau, Ha-riet, 347. 
Mary I. , Queen (daughter of Henry 

VIII.), 160, 167, 172, 174 ; reign^ 

175—180 ; death, 180. 
Mary II.. Queen, 246, 250, 262; 

reign, 255—259 ; death, 259. 
Mary of Modena, Queen, 246, 248. 
Mary Tudor, Queen of France and 

Duchess of Suffolk, 159, 168, 172, 

193. »94- 
Massinger, Philip, 205, 291. 
Matilda, the Empress, 64, 66—68. 
Matilda of Boulogne, Queen, 68. 
Matilda (Edith). Queen, 62, 64. 
Matilda of Flanders Queen, 52 
Matthew Paris, 120. 
Maurice, Bishop ',f London, 46. 
Medina Sidonia, Duke of, 189, 190- 
Mercia, 10, 19, 21, 22, 23, 25, 33. 
Merton, Council of, 91. 
Methodists, 287, 288. 
Middle-Saxons, 9. 
Militia, 12, 73, 211, 231. 
Milman, Henry Hart, Dean of St 

Paul's, 348. 
Milton, Jfohn, 251, 252. 
Minden, battle of, 284. 
Minorca, 267, 270, 282, 294, 297. 
Monk, George (Duke of Albemarle; 

222, 225, 228, 229, 23^, 235. 
Monmouth, James, Duke or, 238, 040 



241. 2f3- 
Monopolies, 191, 192, 197. 
Montacute, Marquess of, 141. 
Montapi, Lord, 165. 
Montague, Charles, 259. 
Montcalm, Marquess of, 284. 
Montgomery, 63. 
Moore, Sir John, 308. 
Morcar, Earl of the Northumbrians, 

37. 39. 40. .S4- 
More, Su: Thomas, 162, 20s. 
Mortimer, Sir Edmund, 123. 
Mortimer, Roger of, 103 — 105. 
Mortimer's Cross, battle of, \yi. 
Municipal Corporation Act, 335. 
Municipal Franchise, Act to shorten 

the term of residence required as a 

qualification for, ^45. 
Mutiny Act, afta. 
Mutiny, the ladiaa, 34a, ««,} 



INDEX. 



359 



o. 



Napinr Sii Charles, 140. 

Napier, Commodore, 340. 

Naseby, battle of, 214. 

National Debt, 259, 275, a86, 311. 

Navarino, battle of, 327. 

Navarrete, battle of, 109. 

Navigation Acts, 327. 

Nelson, Horatio, LcHrd, 301, 303 — 306. 

Netherlands, United Province* of the, 

187, 222, 234. 
Neville's Cross, battle of, 107. 
New Brunswick, 297, 343. 
Newbury, battle or, 213. 
New Caledonia, 314. 
Newcastle, Duke of, 283. 
New Forest, the, 55, 60. 
Newspapers, 263, 345. 
Newton Butler, battle of, *3l6. 
Newton, Isaac, 253, 354, 359. 
New Zealand, 314, 315, 344. 
Nile, battle of the, 303. 
Nithsdale, Earl of, 374. 
Nonronfonnists, 183, 333, ssi> »5M. 

See also Dissenters. 
Nonjurors, 255. 

Norfolk, John Howard, Duke o£, 148. 
Norfolk, Roger Bigod, Earl of, 08. 
Norfolk, Thomas Howard, Duke of, 

164, 165, 167, 176. 
Noriolk, Thomas Howard, Duke of 

(grandson of the above), 185. 
Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray, Duke of, 

117. 
Normandy, Duchy of, 35, 55, 56, 58, 

60, 62, 64, 69, 72, 80, 139. 
Normans, 25, 35—37, 39 — 4'. 45. A^- 
North, Lord, 295. 
Northampton, battle of, 136, 138. 
Northmen, 20. 
Northumberland, kingdom of, 9, 10, 

19, 21 ; conversion of, 15 — 17; owns 

Edward as Lord, 25; under iEthel 

Stan, 26 ; earldom of, 27, 33, 68 ; 

revolt of, 37 ; dialect of, 43 ; litera« 

ture of, 43, 44. 
Northumberland, Henry Percy, Earl 

of, 117, 118, 123, 124. 
Northumberland, Henry Percy, E«rl 

of, 148. 
Northumberland, John Dudley, Duke 

of (Earl of Warwick), 171 — 173, 175, 

176. 
Northumberland, Thomas Percy, Earl 

of, 185. 
North-Wales, 10. 
North-West Paissage, search for the, 

187, 200, 346. 
Nova Scotia, 170 097, 349. 



Oatea, Titus, 237 

Occasional conformity, 271, 277. 

O'Connell, Daniel, 329. 

Oda, Archbishop of Canterbury, 28. 

Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, 46, 53, 55 — 57 

Offa, King of the Mercians, 6, 19, 24. 

Ormonde, James Butler, Marquess of. 
220. 

Ormonde, James Butler, Duke ol, 
269, 273, 275. 

Oswald, St., King of the Northum- 
brians, 16. 

Oudenarde, battle of, 267. 

Outram, Sir James, 342. 

Oxford, Provisions of, 87. 

Oxford, University of, 91, 169, ao3, 
215, 244, 287. 

Oxford, Johnde Vere, Earl of, 156. 

Oxford, Robert Harley, Earl of, 269, 
«7i. 273- 



Paias and Penalties, Act of, vf6. 
Painting, 323— S^S' 
Palgrave. Sir Francis, 348. 

Pandulf, 81, 83. 

Papists, see Roman Catholics. 

Paris, Treaty of [1763], 293: Paris, 
Treaty of [1815], 310. 

Parker, Matthew, Archbishop of Can- 
terbury, 182, 201. 

Parliament, 50; Great Council so 
called, 87, 88 ; representatives of the 
towns first summoned, 88, 89 : organ- 
ised by Edward 1., 97, 98 ; taxes not 
to be levied without grant of, 98, 
262 ; peers in, iii ; Roman Catholics 
shut out from, 186, 237, 328 ; stand> 
ing army not to be kept unless by its 
consent, 262 ; freedom of debate, ib. ; 
necessity of frequent parliaments, 
ib. ; oath of abjuration imposed on 
members, 363 ; one parhament for 
England and Scotland, 268 ; and 
Ireland, 313 ; duration of parlia- 
ments, 276; Roman CathoUcs ad- 
mitted to, 329 ; parliamentary re- 
form, 31a, 330—334. 339. 34S ; Jews 
admitted to House of Commons, 
345 ; the Mad Parliament 87 ; Earl 
Simon's Parliament, 88, 89 ; Piurli^ 
ment of 1295, 97 ; Parliament of 
1309, 100 ; Parliament deposes Ed- 
ward IL , 103 ; the Good Parliament, 
no ; the Wonderful Parliament, 116; 
Parliament deposes Richard ZI.« 
1x8 ; Parlianent of Coveiitr]r» 13B; 



}6o 



INDEX. 



Parliament of 1460, 136 ; first Parlia- 
ment of Edward IV. , 139; Parliament 

uf 1484, 147 ; Parliament settles the 
crown on Henry VII.,152; Parliament 
of 1554 reconciled with Rome, 178 ; 
Parliament of i6oi, 1^2; the Addled 
Parliament, 197; Parliament of 1621, 
197, 198 ; Parliament of 1628—29, 
206, 207 • the Short Parliament, 
ao9 ; the Long Parliament, 200 — 223, 
228, 229, 252 ; Royalist Parliament 
at Oxford, 213: the Little Pa^ia- 
ment, 224 ; Parliaments of the Pro- 
tectorate, 224, 225, 331 ; Conven- 
tion Parliament of 1660, 229 — 231 ; 
Parliament of 1661, 231, 232. 237 ; 
Parliament of 1679, 237 ; Parliament 
at Oxford, 238 ; Parliament of 
1685, 241, 243, 244 ; Convention 
Parliament of 1689, 249, 250, 262 ; 
Parliaments of William III., 260, 
261 ; first Parliament of George I., 
872, 273 ; Parliaments of 1830 and 
1831, 332, 333 ; first Reformed Parha- 
ment, 334. 

Parliament of Ireland, 233, 313 ; Jaco- 
bite Parliament of 1689, 256. 

Parliament-Houses burned down, 336. 

Parry, Sir Edward, 346. 

Partition Treaties, 260. 

Paterson, William, 259. 

Patrick, St., 16. 

Paul III,, Pope. 16?. 

Paul v.. Pope, 196." 

Paulinus, Bishop, 15, 16. 

Pecoclc, Reginald, Bishop of Chiches- 
ter, 150. 

Pedro, King of Castile, 109. 

Peel, Sir Robert, 329, 330, 333, 338. 

Pelham, Henry', 283. 

Pembroke, Richard Clare, Earl of 
(Strongbow), 74. 

Pembroke, William Marshal, Earl of, 
8S- 

Penda, King of the Mercians, 16. 

Peninsular War, 307 — 309. 

Percy, Sir Henry (Hotspur), 123. 

Ferrers, Alice, 109, 110. 

Peterborough, Charles Mordaunt, Earl 
of, 266, 267, 269. 

Peter des Roches, Bishop of Winches- 
ter. 85. 

Petre, Edward, 243. 

Philip Augustus King of France, 7%, 
76—81. 

Philip of Valois, King of France, 106. 

Phihp, King of Spain. 176—180, 183, 
186 — iu9. 

PhiFip, Duke of Anjou (afterwards 
Philip V. . King of Spain), 260. 27a 
274, 289 



Philippa of Halnault, Queen, 107, 109 

Picts, 7, 8, 16. 

Pilgrimage of Grace, 164. 

Pinkie, battle of, 169. 

Pitt, William (Earl of Chatham), 379, 
283, 284, 293, 296. 

Pitt, William, 298 — 300, 305, 306, ^a8, 
331. 343: 

Pius V. , Pope, 185. 

Plassy, battle of, 286. 

Poitiers, 1: attle of, 108. 

Pole, Reginald, Cardinal and Arch 
bishop, 165, 178, 180. 

Poor Law Amendment Act, 335 

Pope, Alexander, 290. 

Popish Plot, 237, 253. 

Praemunire, Statute of, 118, 161. 

Presbyterians, 194, 213, 215, 216, 226. 
227. 

Preston, Cromwell's victory at, 216 
Jacobites defeated at, 273. 

Pretender, the Old (James Francis 
Edward Stuart), 246 — 248,. 261, 263, 
270, 271, 273 — 276, 280 ; death, 282. 

Pretender, the Young (Charles Edward 
Stuart), 276, 280 — 282. 

Prince Edward island, 344. 

Printing, first introduced, 147, 149; 
Milton's Plea for the Liberty of, 251 
252 ; censorship of the press given 
up, 263; printing of parliamentarj 
debates, 294, 295. 

Prior, iVIatthew, 290. 

Protestants, 163, 165, 173, 188, 207, 
237. 245 ; persecution of, 178, 179 : 
extreme Protestants called Puritans 
182 ; foreign Protestants succoured 
by Elizabeth, 183, 186 ; and bji 
Cromwell, 226; Protestants in Ire 
land, 220, 2;. 6 ; French Protestants 
250 , Protestant succession settled, 
263 ; Protestant interest. Act foi 
strengthening the, 277 ; Protestant 
nots, 297, 298. 

Pulan, Robert, 91. 

Punjaub annexe-d, 340. 

Puritans, 182, 183, 186, 194, 196, 201 
208, 214, 215, 229, 251, 252. 

Purveyance and pre-emption, pre 
rogative of, 82, m, 112, 231. 

Pym, John, 200 — 211. 



Q. 

Quakers or Friends, 227, 317. 
Quatre Bras, batde of, 310. 
Quebec, taking of, 284. 
Queensland, 344. 
Quib«ron, battle of, 1IB4. 



INDEX. 



361 



Ri\dcliffe, Arne, 320 

Radicals, 334. 

Ragnar Lodbrog, legend of, 21. 

Ralegh, Sit Walter 187, 194. i()6 197, 
203. 

Kaniillies, battle or, 266. 

Ranulf Flambard. Bishop of Duiham, 
47. 5^ 59- 

Reform Hill of 1832, 333, 334 ; of 1867, 
345- 

Remoustrance, the Grand, aio, 211. 

Renard, Simon, 176, 177. 

Revolution of 1688, 249, 250, 348. 

Richard 1., King (son of Henry II.), 
51, 72, 73: reign, 75—79: death, 
78 ; legendary fame, 78, 79. 

Richird II., King, reign, 113 — 118; 
deposition, 118; death, 122; burial, 
122, 126. 

Richard III., King (Duke of Glouces- 
ter), 142 — 145 ; reign, 145 — 14-9; slain 
at Bosworth, 149. 

Richard, King of the Romans (Earl 
of Cornwall), 84, 88. 

Richard the Good, Duke of the Nor- 
mans, 32. 

RichardsuU, Samuel, 290. 

Richmond, Henry Tudnr, Earl of, see 
Henry VII. 

Richiiioiid, Margaret Beaufort, Coun- 
tess of, 147. 

Ridley, Nicholas, Bishop of Londoa, 



173. 179- 
ight, Dec] 



Right, Declaration of, 249, 350, 353, 

26e. 
Right, Petition oi, 206. 
Rights, Bill of, 262. 
Riot Act, 273. 
Rivers, Anthony Wydevile, Earl, 143, 

144, 150. 
Robert, Duke of Normandy, 55 — 58, 

60 — 62. 
K.obert of Jumieges, Archbishop of 

Canterbury, 35, 36. 
Robertson, William, 319. 
Roderick, King of Connaught, 75. 
Rodney, Admiral Sir (George, 297. 
Roger, Archbishop of York, ji 
Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, 67. 
Rogers, John, 1^8, 200. 
Rolf, Duke uf the Normans, 25. 
R jnian Catholics, 163, 178, 182, 184— 

186, 189, 195, 196, 210, 213, 220, 237, 

232, 237, 241—244, 248, 257, 263, 

297, 328, 329. 
Romans, 2— -8. 
Romilly, Sir Samuel, 317. 
Roses, Wars of the, 136--141, 146 — 

149. 



Rouen, surrender of, 129. 
Roundheads, 21a. 
Rowe, Nicholas, 290. 
Royal Academy, 324. 
Royal Marriage Act, 313. 
Royal Society, 253, 314. 
Rupert, Prince, 212, 214, 2J5. 
Russell, Edward, 246, 247, 258. 
Russell, Lord John (after (vard-c Karl 

Russell), 333. 
Russell, William, Lord, 23c., 247. 
Rye-House Plot, 239. 
Ryswick, Peace dE, 238, 261. 



Sacheverell, Dr., 268. 

Saint Albans, battles of, 136, 137. 

Saint Paul, cathedral church of, 
founded, 15 ; rebuilding begun, 46 ; 
meeting of the Barons at, 81 ; 
cloister pulled down, 171 ; burned 
and again rebuilt, 234, 254 ; Thorn- 
hill's paintings in, 324 ; Paul's Cross, 
144. 

Saladin, 76. 

Salic Law, 106. 

Salisbury, Meeting at, 48 ; cathedral 
church of, 92. 

Salisbury, Margaret, Countess of, 165. 

Sahsbury, Ric£ard Neville, Earl of, 
136. 

Sancroft, William, Archbishop of Can- 
terbury, 245, 248, 255. 

Sandwich Islands, 315. 

Saratoga, surrender of, 296. 

Sarsfield, Patrick, 257. 

Sautree, William, burned, 125. 

Save, Lord, 135. 

Schism Act, 272, 277. 

Scotland, name of, 2. 

Scots, 2, 7. 

Scott, Sir Walter, 321 — 333. 

Scutage, 74, 82. 

Sebastopol, taking cf, 342. 

Sedgemoor, battle of, 241. 

Septennial Act, 276. 

Seringapatain, storming of, 303. 

Settlement, Act of, 263. 

Seven Bishops, the, 245, 253, 25; »qi. 

Seven Years' War, the, 282, 286. 

Severus, Emperor, 6. 

Seyraoiur, Thomas, Lord, of Sudeley, 
170. 

Siiaftesbury, Earl of (Lord Ashley*, 
^ 236, 238, 253. 

Shakspere, William, 36, 204, 205. 

Shannon and Cliesa^eake, combat of 
the, 311. 

Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 333. 

Sheridan, Richard Brinslev, 319 



^ 



INDEX. 



Skeriflf, 13; exactions of the stinriffs, 
50. 134 ; sheriff of London, 51, 339. 

Sheriffmuir, battie ^f, 273, 274. 

Ship-money, 208 — 210. 

Shire, 13; knights o£ the, 89, 97, no, 

137- 
Shovell, Sir Cloudesley, 267. 
Shrewsbury, battle of, 123. 
Shrewsbury, Earl (afterwards Duke) 

of, 246, 271. 
Sidney, Sir Philip, 187, 203, 204. 
Sikh wars, 340. 
Simnel, Lambert, 152, 153. 
Simon of Monlfort, Earl of Leicester, 

87—90, 97 
Sind, conquest of, 340. 
Siward, Earl of the Northumbrians, 

. 36, 37i 40. 
Six Articles, Act of the. 165, 169. 
Sixtus v.. Pope, 189. 
Slavery, 12; dies out, 49; cannot 

exiSt in England, 317 ; Act for 

Abolition of, 334. 
Slave-trade, '42 ; negpro-slave trade, 

187 ; abolished, 317, 334. 
Sluys, battle of, 106. 
Smeaioa, John, 287, 316. 
Smith, Adam, 318. 
Smith, iir Sidney, 303. 
Smith, Sydney, 331. 
Smollett, Tobias, 290. 
Society Islands, 314. 
Somers, Lord, 253. 

Somerset, Edmund Beaufort, Ouke of, 
^ 135. 136. 
{Somerset, Edmund Beaufort, Duke of 

(son of the ab ve), 141. 
Somerset, Edward Seymour, Duke of 

(Earl of Hertford;, 167 — 171. 
Somerset, Henry Beaufort, Duke of, 

beheaded, 139. 
Somerset, Robert Carr, Earl of, 196. 
Sophia, Princess, Electress of Hanover, 

263, 270. 
Southey, Robert, 321. 
South Sea schejne, 275, 276. 
Spanish Succession, 260, 261 ; War of 

the, 265 — 270, 289. 
Spenser, Edmund, 203. 
Spenser. Henry, Bishop of Norwich, 

"5- 
Spurs, Battle of the, 158. 
Stamford Bridge, battle of, 38. 
Stamp Act, 295. 
Sta.np duty on newspapers. 345 
Standard, battle of the, 66, 67 
Stanley, Lord, 147 — 149. 
Stanley, Sii: WilUam, 148, 154. 
Star Chamber, 208, aio, 352. 
Steele, Richard, 289, 
Stepben, King, 65—68. 



Stephenson, George and Robert. 336. 

Sterne, Laurence, 290. 

StridTord, Th imas VVentworth, Earld 

(Viscount VVentworth), 207 — 210. 
Suathclyde, 11, 25, 26. 
Stroiigbou , (Earl of Pembroke), 74. 
Stuart, Arabella, 194. 
itubbs, J /lui. loses his hand, 184. 
Succession, Act concerning the King's 

163. 
Suetonius Paulinus, 3, 4. 
Suffolk, Charles Brandon, Duke os, 

159. ^72- 
Suffolk, Henry Grey, Duke of. 17a, 

177. 
Suliolk, William de la Pole., Earl, 

Marquess, and Duke of, 132 — 134. 
Supremacy, Act of, 182, 183; oatL 

if, 182. 1S6, 232, 237, 262, 32S, 
Siiraj-ad-dowla, Nabob of Bengal 

2S5, 206. • 

Surrey, Heur>' Howard, Earl of, 167 

203. 
Surrey, John, Earl of Warrenne and. 
,,95- 
Surrey, Ihouias Howard, Earl of, 

159. 
Sussex, kinijdom of, 8, 10. 
Swegen F rkSeard, King, 31, 32. 
Swegen Fstriihson, King of the Danes 

53- 
Swifi, Jonathan, 289. 
Sydney, Algernon, 239, 247. 
Sydney, Hciiry, 246, 247. 



Talavera, battle of, 308. 

Talbot. Jolin, Lord (Earl of Shrews- 
bury). 132, 133. 

Tallages, 51, 68. 

Tangier, 233, 242. 

Tasmania or Van Diemen's Land. 315. 

Tayl-T, Jeremy, 250. 

Taylor, R Avlaad, burned, 179. 

Templars, Knights, Order of the. sup 
pressed, 104. 

Test Act, 232, 236, 377, 328. 

Tewkesbury, battle of, 141. 

Thackeray, WilUam Makepeace, 347 

Thanes or Thegns, la, 47. 

Theodore f Tarsus, Archbishop oi 
Canterbury, 17, 18 

I'heodosiu^, 7. 

Thomas, St., Archbishop of Cantt 
bury, 70—72, 121, 164. 

Thomson, James, 291. 

Thurstan, Archbishop of York, 66 

Tinchebrai, battki of 62. 

Tippoo Sahll), 3pj. 3J.1, 31.4. 



IKDSX. 



363 



Toleration Act , a6a. 

Tonoage and poundage, S07. 

Torres V'edra'^. the lines of, 308. 

Torture, 185, 186. 

Tory, origin of i he term, 238. 

To'^tig, Earl, 37—39- 

Toulouse, battle of, 309 

Tow ns, 50, 51. 

Towton. battle of, 138. 

Trafalgar, battle of, 506. 

Treasons. Statute or, iii; Act for 

regulating of trials in cases of tre*" 

son, 263. 
Triennial Act, ayd. 
Trinity House, 168. 
Triple Alliance, 235. 
Tromp, Martin, 222. 
Troyes, Treaty of, 129. 
Tyler, John, of Dartford, 114. 
Tyler. Wat, 114, 115. 
Tyudale. U'illiam, 200. 
Tyrconnel. Richard Talbot, Earl of, 

243, 247, 256, 257. 
Tyrc.nnel, Roderick O'Donnell, Earl 

of, 199. 
Tyrone, Hugh O'Neill, Earl o£, 191. 

199. 



Udal, Nicholas, 204. 
Ulster, plantation of, 199. 
Uniformity, Acts or, 174, i8», 23s, 

Union with Scotland, 268 ; with Ire- 
land, 313 ; Union Jack, 198, 268, 
,1.'3- 

United Irishmen, 313. 

United States of America, 199, 296. 
297. 3'*. 343- 

Universities, 87, 91, 215, 243 ; colleges 
in, 91, III, 137, 169. See alto Ox- 
ford and Cambridge. 

Urban v., Pope, 112. 

Utrecht, Peace of, 270, 273, 274. 



V. 

Vscarius, 91. 
S'alentinian, Emperor, 7. 
Victoria, Queen, 335, 337 — 348. 
Victoria, colony of^ 344. 
Vikings, 20. 

Villainage, 49, 113 — 116. 
Vimeiro, battle or, 307. 
Virginia, 187, 199. 
Volunteers, 305, 342. 



Wakefield, battle of, 136. 

Wales, 2, 8, 10, 19, 25, 63 ; P lemish 
settlement in, 64; conquered and 
annexed by Edward I., 93, 94 ; (ilen- 
dower's revolt, 122 — 124 ; incorpor- 
ated with England, 168; Royalist 
risings in, ai6. 

Wales, Prince of, 00, 04. 

Walker, George, Bishop of London 
derry, 856, 257. 

Wallace, William, 96 

Waller, Edmund. 251. 

Walls, the Roman, 4—6. 

Walpole, Horace, 279, 2S3, 284, 318. 

Walpole, Robert (Earl of Orford), 
276, 278, 279. 

Walsingham, Sir Francis, 181, 186, 
190. 

Walter of Coutances, Archbishop of 
Rouen, 77. 

Waltheof, Earl, 40, 53—55. 

Walton, Taaak, 251. 

Wandewash, battle of, 286. 

Warbeck, Perkin, 153, 154. 

Warwick, Edward, Earl of, 153, 15^ 

Warwick, Richard Neville, Earl of, 
136, 137, 140, 141. 

Waterloo, battle of, 310. 

Watt, James, 316. 

Watts, Isaac, 291. 

Wedgwood, Josiah, 316. 

Wedmore, Peace of, 23. 

Wellesley, Marquess, 314. 

Wellington,, Arthur Wellesley, Dnka 
of, 307—310, 329. 332—334, 339. 

Welsh, I, 8; defeated by /EtheVFritix, 
9 ; submit to Egbert, 19 ; to Ed> 
ward the Elder, 25 ; Welsh (of 
Strathdyde) at Brunanburh, 26; 
struggle against the Normans and 
Flemings, 63, 64 ; Welsh marches, 
64, 80, 94, 122 ; Welsh conquered 
by Edward I., 93, 94 ; revolt under 
Glendower, 122 — 124. 

Wesley, John and Charles, 287, 288. 

Wessex, kingdom of, 9, 10, 19, 22, 27, 
31, 44 ; earldom of, 33. 

Westminster, 37, 38, 40, 42, 90, 95, 
i«5, 130, T41, 144, 231, 254, 326. 

Westminster Hall, 61, 103, zi8, 225, 
24s. 336. 

Westmoreland, Charles Neville, Earl 
of, 185. 

Whig, origin of the name, 238. 

Whitby, Synod of, ijr ; moxuLKtary oC, 
17, 44; named by the DanM. aj. 

Whitefield, George, 287, »88 

Wliittingion, Richard, 131. 

Wilberforce, William, 317. 



3^4 



INDEX. 



Wilkes. John, 894, 318 

Williflm I., King (Duke of Norm&ndy), 

37—40, 42, 46. 48, 62, 63, 70 ; reign, 

52 — 56; death, 56. 
WilUam II. (Rufus), King, 43, 56, 

62 — 64 ; reign, 57 — 61 ; death, 60. 
William III., King (Prince of Orange 

Nassau), 246 — 250, 265; reign, 255 

— 264 ; death, 262. 
William IV., King, 330; reign, 330 — 

337 ; death, 334 
William the Lion, King of Scots, 72, 

76. 
\Villiam, iEtheling, drowned, 64. 
William of Malmesbury, 119. 
William of St. Carilef, Bishop of 

Durham, 47. 
Witan, 13, 23, 38, 55. 
Witeiia-gem6t, 13, 49. 
Wolfe, General, 284. 
WoUey, Thomas, Cardinal, 159—161. 
Worcester, battle of. 221. 
Worcester, John Tiptoft, Earl of, 150. 
Worcester, Thomas Percy, Earl of, 

123. 124. 
Wordsworth, William, 321. 
Wren, Sir Christopher, 2^4, 254, 259. 
Wulfstan.St., Bishop of Worcester, 4a 
'y3^!tt, Smt Thomas (tlie elder), eoj. 



Wyctt, SirThon.as(thc younger), nj* 

177. 
Wycliffe. John, 112, 123, 200. 
Wykeham, William of. Bishop o£ 

Winchester, iii. 



Y. 



York (Eboracum), 6, 26, 38, 39, 44^ 

137, 138, 145, 228, 248 ; minster ?* 

16,92; Archbishopric of, 18 : baMic 

with the Normans at, 53. 
Yotk, Edmund of Langley, Duke of, 

til, 117 
York, Edward Piantagenet, Duke of, 

sgg Edward IV. 
York, James, Duke of, see Jame« ' i^ 
York, Richard Piantagenet, Duke of, 

135. 136. 
York, Richard, Duke of (son of Ed 

ward IV.), 143, 144, 146. I53- 
York. Henry Benedict Stuart, Carding 

282. 
Yorktown, capitulation of, 397 
Young, Edward, 391. 



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